Origin

This character is a simple picture of a boat. The strokes represent the curved hull of a vessel, with the opening at the top showing where people would sit or stand. Because the shape directly resembles a boat's form, the character naturally came to mean "boat" or "ship." This is one of the oldest types of Chinese characters, where the visual outline of an object became its written symbol.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.