Origin

This character combines two parts: the bottom component 玉 means "jewel" or "precious stone," which classifies this as something made of jade or valuable material. The top part 爾 serves as a sound hint, telling you roughly how to pronounce the character. Together, the character represents an imperial seal, which was traditionally made from jade and served as the emperor's official stamp of authority. The jewel component makes sense because such seals were precious ritual objects, not everyday stamps.

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