Origin

This character combines a person radical on the left with the component 非, which serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation "hai." The left side indicates the character refers to a person or human activity, while the right component suggests how it sounds. Over time, the character came to mean both "actor" — a person who performs — and "haiku" — the traditional form of Japanese poetry often performed or recited. The connection to performance and human expression ties these meanings together.

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