Meaning & readings
gentleman, scholar, samurai, samurai radical (no. 33)
On’yomi シ
Kun’yomi さむらい
Nanori お、ま
Origin
This character most likely started as a pictograph of a person standing upright, shown by the vertical stroke down the middle with horizontal strokes on either side representing the arms or shoulders. Over time, the shape simplified into the three strokes we see today. Because it depicted a person in an upright, dignified posture, it came to represent a person of status, education, or skill—a gentleman or scholar. In Japanese, this meaning extended to the samurai, the warrior class who embodied these ideals of learning and honor.
Components
This character is treated as a single, undivided shape (士).
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 3
- Kangxi radical
- 33
- Formation type
- Pictographic or simple
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #526 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+058EB