字の旅3,000 years in four forms
Oracle bone · ShangShang · c. 1200 BCE甲3085 合22474 子組
Oracle bone and bronze: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Small seal: Academia Sinica 小學堂, CC0. Today’s form: KanjiVG, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The oracle bone, bronze and seal stages show 刀, not ⺉ itself.
部首Radical · in Tools & Weapons
⺉ knife, sword
りっとう rittou
2 strokesRadical of 26 kanjiPart of 28
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
A knife. The original form was 𠚣, which can be found in a variant of 利, 𥝢 (in turn used on the top of the character 黎).
Source: Wiktionary, 刀 (rev. 93753295), the entry for the full form, CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Slice through it! This "standing knife" radical is all about precision and force. Imagine a sharp blade coming down to split something in two. When you see it on the right, think of cutting, dividing, judging, and the decisive action of an edge meeting its mark. It’s the radical of the "separator."”
Where it sits in a kanji
Indicates cutting, slicing, carving, separating, judging (deciding a cut), or the use of a sharp tool or weapon.
What it grows into
- 制systemセイ
- 利profitリ · きく
- 別separateベツ · わかれる
冎 + ⺉
Ideogrammic compound (會意): 冎 (“bone”) + 刂 (“knife”), hence 𠛰 – to cut up bone and flesh. Later, the character was stylized as 別.
Ideogrammic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with ⺉ as its radical
All 26 kanji