Origin

This character appears to show a mouth or opening (the box shape on the left) combined with strokes suggesting action or movement. The formation likely connects to the idea of "giving" or "doing for someone" through the sense of something coming out of or being offered from the mouth — in other words, speaking a promise or command to give. Over time, the character came to mean "give" or "do for," and it was also adopted as the name of the ancient Kingdom of Wu in China, where it took on that historical meaning as well.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.