Meaning & readings
distribute, spouse, exile, rationing
Origin
This character combines two elements to suggest distribution or arrangement. The left side, 酉, originally represented a wine vessel or fermentation process—something requiring careful measurement and apportionment. The right side, 己, represents oneself or a single entity. Together, the character suggests dividing or allocating something (like wine, rations, or roles) among people or to oneself, which is why it came to mean distribute, ration, or assign a spouse to someone. The sense of "exile" likely grew from the idea of assigning someone elsewhere.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 酉
- 己
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 164
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #359 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+0914D