Meaning & readings
first time, beginning
On’yomi ショ
Kun’yomi はじ.め、はじ.めて、はつ、はつ-、うい-、-そ.める、-ぞ.め
Nanori し、はっ
Origin
The character combines "cloth" or "garment" on the left with "knife" or "blade" on the right. The idea is that when you first cut cloth—that initial cutting action—you're making something new from raw material. This captures the sense of "beginning" or "first time": just as cutting marks the start of making a garment, the character points to the moment when something new is first set in motion. Over time, the visual image faded but the meaning of "first" or "beginning" stuck.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 衤
- 刀
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 18
- Grade
- Grade 4 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #152 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+0521D