This is a thread for sharing fun chinese character origins (hanzi, 汉字)
I'll share one below
Tou, 偷 (tone 1, high pitch)
This character means to steal (v), it can also mean a thief (n)
Like most hanzi it is composed of several pieces (or radicals)
Let's break it down
On the left we have 亻(radical form of 人, person)
Up top we have 亼 (a depiction of a mouth)
Below we have 月 and 刀 (moon and knife radical respectively)
A person with a knife at night, using his mouth - brings to mind a robbery doesn't it?
Some of this may be accidental, usual reasoning is that the left portion here is semantic (meaning imparting meaning) and the right part is phonetic (imparting sound)
Breaking down the character this way yields
亻and 俞
This breakdown leaves us with the knowledge that the character has something to do with a human action (as we know stealing does) and sounds a bit like 俞 yu (tone 2)
I'll share one below
Tou, 偷 (tone 1, high pitch)
This character means to steal (v), it can also mean a thief (n)
Like most hanzi it is composed of several pieces (or radicals)
Let's break it down
On the left we have 亻(radical form of 人, person)
Up top we have 亼 (a depiction of a mouth)
Below we have 月 and 刀 (moon and knife radical respectively)
A person with a knife at night, using his mouth - brings to mind a robbery doesn't it?
Some of this may be accidental, usual reasoning is that the left portion here is semantic (meaning imparting meaning) and the right part is phonetic (imparting sound)
Breaking down the character this way yields
亻and 俞
This breakdown leaves us with the knowledge that the character has something to do with a human action (as we know stealing does) and sounds a bit like 俞 yu (tone 2)
