Origin

This character combines the bow radical on the left, which shows the object that produces a bowstring, with a sound hint on the right. The bow radical immediately suggests the most concrete meaning — the string stretched across a bow used for shooting arrows. Over time, the term extended to other types of strings and cords, and eventually to the mathematical chord and hypotenuse, which are conceptually "stretched" lines connecting two points. The right component provides a pronunciation clue rather than additional meaning.

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