Meaning & readings
private, I, me
On’yomi シ
Kun’yomi わたくし、わたし
Origin
The left side, the rice plant radical, originally suggested something personal or individual—perhaps because rice was a staple crop that belonged to particular families or households rather than being communal. The right component serves as a sound hint, indicating how the character should be pronounced. Over time, the "personal" or "individual" sense of the rice radical evolved into the meaning of "private" and "I" or "me," making this character express the idea of something belonging to oneself rather than the public or a group.
Components
- 禾
- 厶
A sound hint component points at the character’s pronunciation, not its meaning — don’t read a meaning into it.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 7
- Kangxi radical
- 115
- Formation type
- Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint)
- Grade
- Grade 6 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #242 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 3
- Unicode
- U+079C1