Meaning & readings
breath, respiration, son, interest (on money), rest, coming to an end
On’yomi ソク
Kun’yomi いき
Origin
The character combines the nose (自) sitting above the heart (心) to represent breath and respiration—the idea of air passing through the nose and affecting the heart's functioning. Since breath is essential to life and tied to one's inner state, the character expanded to mean related concepts: a son (seen as an extension of oneself), rest (when breathing slows), interest accruing (growing quietly like breath), and the ending of something (when breath stops). The stacking of these two body-related components creates a unified image of the vital, continuous process of breathing.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 10
- Kangxi radical
- 61
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 3 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #882 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+0606F