Origin

This character combines speech or words (言, the left component) with a sound hint (亥, the right component). The 亥 part tells you roughly how to pronounce the character—it sounds similar to the on'yomi "ガイ"—but it doesn't contribute to the meaning itself. The speech radical indicates this character relates to language or reference, which connects to its meaning of pointing to something already mentioned, like saying "that specific thing I just talked about." Over time, the combination came to mean "the aforementioned" or "that said."

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Phono-semantic (meaning + sound hint).