Origin

This character combines a person radical on the left with a component suggesting covering or suppression. The right side, 奄, originally conveyed the idea of something being contained or held down. Together, the character appears to represent a person who is self-contained or self-directed—someone who stands alone. Over time, this developed into a rough, assertive first-person pronoun (俺), which carries a masculine or casual tone quite different from more formal ways to say "I" in Japanese.