Etymology

gaiji

G2A1I1J8I1

Today it means: A Japanese character that is valid in a given writing system but not included in the present font and/or character encoding, and which therefore is displayed using an additional mechanism. Mutually distinct from tofu and from mojibake. Full definition →

Japanese 外字
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The story

  1. Japanese · borrowed from外字
  2. English todaygaiji

Borrowed from Japanese 外字, literally "external characters".

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.