Origin

This character combines two components to express the idea of a strong smell. The top part, 自, originally depicted a nose, and the bottom part, 大, represents a person or something large. Together they suggest a smell so powerful it comes from or affects a person's nose — hence "stinking" or having a strong odor. The character later broadened to mean any distinctive smell, whether pleasant or unpleasant, and even took on a figurative sense of something seeming suspicious or off.

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