Science, ideas & the artsMyths & disputes

emoji

Emoji is Japanese e 'picture' + moji 'character'; its likeness to 'emotion' and 'emoticon' is pure coincidence. Once Unicode and the iPhone took emoji worldwide (2010–11), the word followed into Chinese, Korean, Russian, Hebrew, Arabic and the European languages.

Weakest linkCertain

The story you may have heard

That emoji is related to 'emotion' or 'emoticon'. The resemblance is accidental.

The road to English

From Japanese to Mandarin Chinese

From Japanese to Russian

From English to Korean

From English to French

From English to German

From English to Spanish

From English to Modern Hebrew

From English to Arabic

1988Japanese

Hops are evenly spaced; labels show the year each form is first attested.

The road to English

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Export “emoji”

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