Meaning & readings
alienate, rough, neglect, shun, sparse, penetrate
Origin
This character combines two components: the left part, 疋, acts as a sound hint suggesting the pronunciation, while the right part, 束, which means "bundle" or "to tie up tightly," carries the core meaning. The idea of tying things tightly or compressing them evolved to mean "sparse" or "thin" — the opposite of densely packed. From there, the meanings expanded to include "rough" (not fine or close) and eventually "alienate" or "shun" (to push away or keep at distance). The visual and conceptual leap from "tightly bundled" to "sparse" and "distant" may seem indirect, but it reflects how meanings shifted over centuries of use.
AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).
Components
- 疋
- 束
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
- 過疎 かそ underpopulation; low population density
- 空疎 くうそ empty (e.g. argument); insubstantial
- 疎か おろそか negligent; neglectful
- 疎遠 そえん estrangement; alienation
- 疎開 そかい evacuation (to the country)
- 疎外 そがい alienation; estrangement
- 疎通 そつう (mutual) understanding; communication
- 意思疎通 いしそつう (reciprocal) communication; (coming to a) mutual understanding
Reference
- Strokes
- 12
- Kangxi radical
- 103
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #1572 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+0758E