Meaning & readings
perform, complete, footgear, shoes, boots, put on (the feet)
Origin
The character 履 combines two components to express the idea of putting something on your feet. The left side 尸 represents a person or body in a seated or reclining position, while the right side 復 suggests the action of returning or going back. Together, these parts evoke the motion of placing footwear on the feet — a repeated, cyclical action you perform each time you put on shoes or boots. Over time, the character's meaning expanded from the physical act of wearing shoes to the more abstract sense of "performing" or "completing" an action, since wearing something "completes" your readiness to go out.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).
Components
- 尸
- 復
Common words
- 草履 ぞうり zori; traditional Japanese thonged sandals
- 履行 りこう performance (of a duty); fulfillment (of a promise)
- 履歴 りれき personal history; background
- 履物 はきもの footwear; footgear
- 履く はく to put on (lower-body clothing, e.g. pants, skirt, footwear); to wear
- 履歴書 りれきしょ personal history document; curriculum vitae
- 履き古し はきふるし worn-out shoes; worn-out socks
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 44
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1619 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+05C65