Origin

This character combines the radical for paddy field (the square 田 on the left) with 半, which sounds like "han" and serves as a sound hint for the character's Chinese-derived pronunciation. The left component establishes that the character relates to rice farming, while the right component tells you roughly how to say it. Together they represent the ridges of earth that divide and contain water in paddies—the practical agricultural feature that borders and separates the flooded fields.