Characters of Lesson 8

爱 ài : love, to love

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 爪 claw; 冖 cover; 友 friendship.
Etymology: 爱 ài is the simplified form of 愛. Its ancient shape resembles a person holding a heart, symbolizing love. The traditional character 愛 originally contained the heart component 心, which disappeared in simplification — giving rise to the wordplay that "simplified love is love without heart".

喜 xǐ : joy, to like
Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 士 scholar; 口 mouth; 丷 inverted eight; 一 the number one.
Etymology: 喜 xǐ is composed of 壴 zhù (drum) and 口 kǒu (mouth). Originally, it represented the joyful sound of a drum during celebrations. By extension, it took on the meanings of “joy,” “to rejoice” or “to like something”.

欢 huān : joy, delight

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 又 hand; 欠 to lack (a man with an open mouth).
Etymology: 欢 huān is the simplified form of 歡. Originally, it was an ideophonogram whose phonetic component was 雚 guàn (stork or heron). It represented the joyful expression. By extension, it means “joy,” “delight” or “pleasure”.

漂 piào : (pretty), not used alone

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 氵 water; 票 piào ticket.
Etymology: 漂 piào is an ideophonogram composed of water 氵 and the phonetic component 票 piào. The original meaning was “to float on water”. The sense of “pretty, beautiful” is a phonetic borrowing.

亮 liàng : bright, luminous

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 亠 lid; 口 mouth; 冖 cover; 几 table.
Etymology: 亮 liàng is an ideogram. Its ancient shape depicted a standing person with a flame above the head, symbolizing light. The upper component 亠 and 口 evoke the light source, while the lower part 几 originally represented a person's legs.

玩 wán : to play, to have fun

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 王 wáng king/jade; 元 yuán origin.
Etymology: 玩 wán is composed of the radical for jade 玉 yù (jade, precious stone) and the phonetic 元 yuán. Originally, it evoked the idea of handling precious objects. By extension, it took on the meanings of “to play,” “to have fun” or “to appreciate an art object”.

猫 māo : cat

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 犭 animal; 苗 miáo sprout.
Etymology: 猫 māo is an ideophonogram composed of the animal radical 犭 (variant of 犬, dog) and the phonetic component 苗 miáo. The radical indicates it is an animal, and the sound miáo recalls the cat's meow. The traditional character is 貓, with the radical 豸 (wild animal).

狗 gǒu : dog

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 犭 animal; 句 jù sentence.
Etymology: 狗 gǒu is an ideophonogram composed of the animal radical 犭 (variant of 犬 quǎn, dog) and the phonetic component 句 gōu. The radical indicates it is an animal, while 句 provides the sound clue. Originally, 犬 referred to dogs in general, while 狗 referred more specifically to puppies. Today, 狗 is the common word for “dog”.

它 tā : it (for animals and objects)

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 宀 roof; the rest represented a snake.
Etymology: 它 tā is an ancient pictogram of a coiled snake. In oracle bone script, it clearly depicted a snake curled up. Later, this character was borrowed phonetically as a third-person pronoun for animals and objects. From 它 were created 他 (he, for men, with the human radical 亻) and 她 (she, for women, with the woman radical 女).

只 zhī : classifier for small animals; zhǐ : only
Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 口 mouth; 八 eight.
Etymology: 只 has a dual origin. In the sense of “only” (zhǐ), it is composed of the mouth 口 and 八, symbolizing a light breath — hence the idea of “nothing but”. In the sense of classifier for small animals (zhī), it is the simplified form of 隻, which was composed of a bird 隹 zhuī held by a hand 又 — a single bird caught, hence the idea of counting animals one by one.

点 diǎn : point, a little

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 卜 divination; 口 mouth; 灬 fire (lower variant).
Etymology: 点 diǎn is the simplified form of the traditional character 點. Originally, 點 combined the character 黑 (hēi, “black”) with 占 (zhàn, occupy), referring to the soot stains around a hearth. This character now denotes a point, an instant or the action of lighting.

了 le : modal particle indicating a new situation (change of state). See grammar.

Character decomposition:

Etymology: 了 le/liǎo is an archaic pictogram representing a person with limbs bent, symbolizing the idea of completion or transformation. Today this character serves as an aspect particle (e.g. 吃了, “have eaten”) or a verb meaning “to understand” (e.g. 了解).

校 xiào : (school)

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 木 tree; 交 jiāo to intersect.
Etymology: 校 xiào is an ideophonogram composed of 木 (tree) and the phonetic element 交 jiāo (to intersect). Originally it denoted a wooden structure (like a fence or frame), and later evolved to symbolize a place of education (学校, “school”).

新 xīn : new

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 木 tree; 辛 spicy; 斤 axe.
Etymology: 新 xīn is composed of the axe 斤 jīn and a phonetic and semantic compound formed by the spicy 辛 xīn (which indicates pronunciation) and the tree 木 mù (which indicates wood). Originally it represented the action of cutting wood, hence the sense of “fresh wood” and then “new”.

雨 yǔ : rain

Character decomposition:

雨 is a graphic component.
Etymology: 雨 yǔ is a pictogram representing raindrops falling from a cloud. The horizontal bar at the top symbolizes the sky, while the vertical dots or strokes represent the precipitation.

北 běi : the north

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 匕 spoon; the other element is not considered a graphic component.
Etymology: 北 běi is an ancient pictogram depicting two people 人 back to back. Originally, this character symbolized the back or the act of opposing, then acquired the sense of north in reference to the orientation of Chinese palaces (backs turned to the north, facing south).

京 jīng : capital

Character decomposition:

Graphic components: 亠 lid; 口 mouth; 小 small.
Etymology: 京 jīng is an ancient pictogram representing a tower or imposing building (depicted by layered structures). It now denotes the capital.