Origin

This character pairs the "movement" radical on the left, which relates to going or traveling, with the component 折 on the right that serves as a sound hint for the pronunciation. The combination suggests the idea of movement away or departing—specifically, the ultimate departure of death. Over time, the character came to mean "to depart" and "to die" because death was understood as a final journey from which one does not return. The sound component tells you roughly how to pronounce it rather than adding to the meaning itself.

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