A man holding a stick is with a cow. What is he doing? He is pasturing (牧). Check out the component 攵, the eighth variant of 手. Continue reading “攵 hand VIII”
廾 hand v
Use your two hands to unfasten a bolt, then you 开/open a door. 开 means “open” because of this part 廾.
又 hand IV
又, a variant of 手, serves as a semantic component to form characters. Characters formed by the semantic component 又 have to do with hand-related actions or hand-related extended meanings. Continue reading “又 hand IV”
册 a book of bamboo slips
册, a pictographic character resembling vertical slips of bamboo strung together by two strings, serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Continue reading “册 a book of bamboo slips”
皿 utensil for meals
皿, a pictographic character representing a utensil or vessel for meals, serves as a semantic component to form characters. The characters formed by the semantic component 皿 express meanings related to utensil, vessel, container, box, etc such as 盆, 盘, 盅, 盂, 盛, 盏, 盒, 盖 and so on. Continue reading “皿 utensil for meals”