Meaning & readings
happenstance, especially, intentionally, reason, cause, circumstances, the late, therefore, consequently
Origin
The left side, 古, acts as a sound hint suggesting how this character is pronounced. The right side, 攵, is a small striking or action radical that originally depicted a hand or rod. Together they suggest the idea of striking something old or worn — which connects to meanings of decay, decline, and eventually "reason" or "cause" in the sense of what has worn down or deteriorated to create a situation. The meanings developed from this physical notion into the abstract senses of circumstances, intention, and the causes behind events.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 古
- 攵
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 9
- Kangxi radical
- 66
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #612 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06545