Meaning & readings
approve, praise, title or inscription on picture, assist, agree with
On’yomi サン
Kun’yomi たす.ける、たた.える
Origin
This character combines two simple picture-based components to express approval and praise. The top part, 目, is a picture of an eye, representing seeing or observing. The bottom part, 八, originally depicted two things separating or dividing apart. Together, these components were used to express the idea of standing apart to observe and judge something favorably—essentially, to approve or praise it by recognizing its worth. The character eventually came to mean "assist" and "agree with" as natural extensions of this sense of favorable judgment.
Common words
Reference
- Strokes
- 15
- Kangxi radical
- 154
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Grade 5 (Kyōiku)
- Frequency rank
- #868 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 2
- Unicode
- U+08CDB