Origin

This character combines two components related to grain and farming. The left part, 禾, is a picture of grain stalks or rice plants bending in the wind. The right part, 斗, originally showed a measuring container or scoop used to portion out grain. Together they suggest the idea of classifying or dividing things into portions or categories — just as grain was sorted and measured into different amounts. Over time, this visual idea of division and classification extended to mean a department or section, which divides an organization into organized parts. The farming context faded away, but the basic sense of categorizing things into distinct groups remained.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).