字の旅3,000 years in three forms
Bronze · Western ZhouWestern Zhou · c. 1000 BCE曶壺蓋 (mid Western Zhou)
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.
部首Radical · in Human Body & People
手 hand
て te
4 strokesRadical of 8 kanjiPart of 7
Origin · sourced
Pictogram象形
Hand and fingers. The top stroke is the bent over middle finger, while the horizontal strokes are each two fingers.
Source: Wiktionary, 手 (rev. 93659566), CC BY-SA 4.0
Memory story · made up to help you remember
“Lend a hand! This radical is the ultimate symbol of human action and creativity. Everything we build, write, and play begins with our hands. When you see it, think of skill, care, and the physical mastery of the world around us. It is the radical of the "maker," the "player," and the "doer" in every story.”
Where it sits in a kanji
Indicates hands, physical actions (grip, throw, take), skill, manual labor, physical touch, or a person who performs a specific role (like a player).
What it grows into
- 撃beatゲキ · うつ
手 + 毄sound
Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 手 (“hand”) + phonetic 毄, probably reinforced by the "hit against" semantics of 毄 – to strike with the hand.
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, 擊, CC BY-SA 4.0
- 挙raiseキョ · あげる
與sound + 手
Phono-semantic compound · Wiktionary, 擧, CC BY-SA 4.0
Every kanji with 手 as its radical
All 8 kanji