Origin

This character combines cattle (牛) on the left with a stroke or hand motion (攵) on the right to show the act of tending animals. The cattle radical makes clear the subject is livestock, while the motion component indicates the active work of managing or guiding them. Together they paint a picture of what a shepherd or herder does — caring for and controlling cattle in a pasture. This compound-ideographic structure directly conveys the meaning of breeding and pasturing animals through its visual parts.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).