Origin

This character combines two elements: the radical on the left side meaning "movement" or "going," and 免 on the right, which originally depicted an animal escaping or evading. Together they create the sense of movement away from something—to deviate, slip away, or miss the mark. The visual structure conveys the idea of straying from a path or eluding something, which over time came to encompass meanings like idleness and leisure, since time off represents a deviation from one's duties. The repeated pairing of "movement" with "evasion" reinforced the character's connection to straying and escaping.

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