タバコ

Etymology
From.

Noun

 * 1) tobacco

Usage notes

 * Unusually for gairaigo (non-Middle Chinese borrowings), tabako is often written in hiragana. This is particularly seen on convenience store signs, indicating that cigarettes are for sale. This usage (hiragana rather than katakana) is attributed to this being an old borrowing, dating to the period (16th & 17th century), before the convention of writing gairaigo as katakana had developed.