Meaning & readings
wait, depend on
Origin
The character 待 combines a component meaning "to walk" or "movement" on the left with the character 寺 on the right, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The idea of waiting developed from the concept of lingering or staying in one place while moving—you remain present, not going anywhere, which is what waiting means. Over time, the meaning shifted to emphasize the stillness and patience of waiting rather than the movement aspect. The right component helps speakers of Chinese and Japanese recognize how to say the word, even though it doesn't directly tell you the meaning.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 彳
- 寺
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 歓待 かんたい warm welcome; friendly reception
- 期待 きたい expectation; anticipation
- 虐待 ぎゃくたい abuse; ill-treatment
- 招待 しょうたい invitation
- 接待 せったい entertainment (of guests; esp. in the corporate world); treating (to food and drinks)
- 待つ まつ to wait
- 待機 たいき standing by; awaiting an opportunity
- 待遇 たいぐう treatment; reception
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 60
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #391 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+05F85