Origin

This character is a picture of a curved roof tile as seen from above or in profile. The strokes form the shape of a traditional ceramic tile with its characteristic curved form, which became the basis for the character's meaning of "tile." Over time, the pictographic shape simplified into the five-stroke form we see today. In modern usage, the character also represents the unit "gram" (ぐらむ), borrowed from Western measurement, though this meaning comes from the sound reading rather than the visual shape.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.