The story
Borrowed from Japanese 当(あ)て字(じ) (ateji) or 宛字(あてじ) (ateji).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Today it means: The use of kanji chosen primarily for their phonetic (narrow sense) or semantic (broad sense) value to represent foreign or native Japanese words, or the kanji so used. Full definition →
Borrowed from Japanese 当(あ)て字(じ) (ateji) or 宛字(あてじ) (ateji).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.