Meaning & readings
hit, right, appropriate, himself
On’yomi トウ
Kun’yomi あ.たる、あ.たり、あ.てる、あ.て、まさ.に、まさ.にべし
Nanori たい
Origin
This character appears to be a phono-semantic compound where the top part provides a sound hint for pronunciation (sounding like "tou"), while the bottom component classifies it as relating to a target or goal. The idea of "hitting" or "striking" a target naturally led to the meanings "hit" and "right" — when you hit your target, you get the right answer. Over time, "right" and "appropriate" became the main meanings, and "himself" developed as a reflexive sense of hitting or applying something directly to oneself.
Components
- ⺌
- ⺕
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 6
- Kangxi radical
- 58
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 2 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #91 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05F53