Origin

The character 雇 combines two components to express "employ" or "hire." The right side, 隹, depicts a bird and serves as a classifying radical suggesting the character relates to creatures or dependents. The left side, 戸, acts as a sound hint that guides the pronunciation rather than contributing to the meaning. Together, the visual pairing of the bird radical with the sound component creates a character meaning to hire or employ someone in your service, much as one might hire a worker or dependent.

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