Meaning & readings
restore, return to, revert, resume
Origin
The character 復 shows a person walking or moving (the left component, which suggests movement or action) combined with a sound hint on the right that helps indicate its pronunciation. The idea of movement or returning to a place naturally led to the meanings of "restore" and "return to" — when you go back to where you were before, you're moving in a returning direction. Over time, this visual and phonetic combination became the standard way to write the word for restoration and resumption in Japanese and Chinese.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 彳
- 复
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 往復 おうふく making a round trip; going and returning
- 回復 かいふく restoration; recovery
- 修復 しゅうふく restoration; repair
- 復活 ふっかつ revival (of an old system, custom, fashion, etc.); restoration
- 復帰 ふっき return; reversion
- 復旧 ふっきゅう restoration; restitution
- 復興 ふっこう revival; reconstruction
- 復権 ふっけん rehabilitation; reinstatement
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 60
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #438 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+05FA9