Origin

This character combines two components that together represent luxury fabric. The left part, 金, means metal and also represents precious materials in general. The right part, 帛, is an older character for silk cloth. By joining the idea of precious metal with silk, the character conveys the sense of something rare and valuable made from fine fabric — specifically the ornate, decorated cloth known as brocade. Over time, the meaning expanded to include honors and fine dress, anything that signals wealth and status.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Compound ideographic (combined meanings).