Origin

This character combines two parts. The right side, a vertical line with a small hook, is the "knife" or "blade" radical—a classifier showing this character belongs to the category of cutting tools and weapons. The left component serves as a sound hint, roughly indicating the character's pronunciation. Together, the shape represents a sword or sabre, one of the most important weapons in Japanese and Chinese history. Over time, because clock and watch hands move like blades, the same character came to also mean the hand of a timepiece.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).