Origin

This character combines the "speech" radical (言) at the bottom, which marks characters related to words and speaking, with a sound component (折) at the top that hints at pronunciation. The character originally developed to represent the act of making a solemn verbal commitment—a vow or pledge made through speech. The sound component helps people remember how to pronounce it, while the speech radical clarifies that the character is about language and verbal promises rather than other meanings the sound component might carry.

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