Meaning & readings
revered, valuable, precious, noble, exalted
On’yomi ソン
Kun’yomi たっと.い、とうと.い、たっと.ぶ、とうと.ぶ
Nanori さだ、たか、たけ、みこと
Origin
The top part 酋 originally depicted a wine vessel or jug, which in ancient China was an expensive, precious object that only the wealthy and important people could possess and display. The bottom part 寸 is a measure of length, used here as a classifier to indicate value or worth. By combining the image of a precious wine vessel with the idea of measurement and worth, the character came to mean something that is revered, valuable, and noble—reflecting how such fine objects were treasured by people of high status.
Components
- 酋
- 寸
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 41
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #1181 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05C0A