字の旅3,000 years in four forms
Oracle bone · ShangShang · c. 1200 BCE
Oracle bone: Wikimedia Commons, traced from Academia Sinica, CC0. Bronze: Wikimedia Commons, public domain. 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 竹, not ⺮ itself.
部首Radical · in Textiles, Plants & Food
⺮ bamboo (top)
たけかんむり takekanmuri
Radical of 18 kanji
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
Two bamboo stalks, with leaves. Earlier forms resembled 个 + 个, current form resembles rather ケ + ケ, or 亇 + 亇.
Source: Wiktionary, 竹 (rev. 92810007), the entry for the full form, CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Under the bamboo canopy! This radical brings the practicality and craftsmanship of bamboo to the head of many kanji. When you see it at the top, think of brushes, baskets, ancient documents (written on bamboo strips), and the clever plans and policies that keep a society moving forward.”
What it grows into
- 算calculateサン · そろ
- 第No.ダイ
⺮ + 弟sound
竹 here refers to the bamboo strips used for writing (e.g. accounting, classification) in ancient times.
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 答solutionトウ · こたえる
⺮ + 合sound
Originally, it was a variant of 荅, where the semantic component 艸 (grass) was later mistakenly replaced by 竹 (bamboo). It expresses the meaning of "to respond.".
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with ⺮ as its radical
All 18 kanji