Why is the kanji of idiot written with the kanji for "horse" and "deer" together? I'm learning Japanese, but I'm a beginner, and I need to understand why this kanji is a compound of the kanji for "horse" and "deer": > = idiot > > = horse > > = deer Why?

is an ateji, which means either _the readings of the individual kanji do not match the reading of the word_ , or _the meanings of the individual kanji do not match the meaning of the word_. In this case, it's the latter - why would an idiot be described as a horse and/or a deer?

As for why these particular kanji were chosen to represent , the etymology is unclear. See this webpage for several theories. <

In this case, the individual kanji meanings were forgone. Other ateji include {} (readings forgone), {} (readings forgone), {} (readings forgone), {} (meanings forgone), etc.