字の旅3,000 years in four forms
Oracle bone · ShangShang · c. 1200 BCE菁5.1 合137 賓組
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze and small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
部首Radical · in Time & Sequence
自 self, oneself, from
みずから mizukara
6 strokesRadical of 2 kanjiPart of 6
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
A nose – original form of 鼻 (“nose”). Later phonetically borrowed as an instance of jiajie (假借) for 自 (“oneself; from”).
Source: Wiktionary, 自 (rev. 92691450), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Point to yourself! This radical represents your unique identity and the very starting point of all your actions. When you see it, think of your own presence, your individual self, and the deep origin of a movement or a thought. It brings the power of personal identity and the concept of "starting from within" to every character it joins, reminding us that every journey begins with the individual.”
Where it sits in a kanji
Indicates the self or oneself, the concept of "naturally" or "automatically" (from within), the starting point or origin of time/space, and the physical nose and smelling.
What it grows into
- 臭stinkingシュウ · くさい
犬 + 自
Ideogrammic compound (會意): 犬 (“dog”) + 自 (“nose”), referring to the dog's strong sense of smell. Original form of 嗅 (“to smell”).
Ideogrammic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with 自 as its radical
All 2 kanji