Meaning & readings
eternity, long, lengthy
On’yomi エイ
Kun’yomi なが.い
Nanori え、と、のり、ひさ、ひさし
Origin
The character 永 appears to show water (水) flowing downward, with a dot (丶) at the top. Water in its nature flows continuously without end, making it a natural symbol for something that goes on and on. By picturing water's endless movement, the character came to express the idea of eternity and things that are long or endless in duration.
Components
- 丶
- 水
Common words
Easily confused with
These look alike but are unrelated in meaning — check the stroke that differs.
Reference
- Strokes
- 5
- Kangxi radical
- 85
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #846 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+06C38