Meaning & readings
slave, servant, prisoner, criminal, follower
On’yomi レイ
Kun’yomi したが.う、しもべ
Origin
This character combines two components suggesting subjugation and control. The left element represents a person or figure, while the right side contains water-related strokes that historically conveyed the idea of something flowing or being constrained. The overall composition suggests a person brought under control or made to follow, which led to meanings of slave, servant, or subordinate. Over time, the character's visual pattern became standardized into its current form, but the core idea of a person in a dependent or controlled position remained tied to its meaning.
Components
- ⺕
- 氺
Common words
- 奴隷 どれい slave; servant
Reference
- Strokes
- 16
- Kangxi radical
- 171
- Formation type
- Compound ideographic (combined meanings)
- Grade
- Jōyō (secondary school)
- Frequency rank
- #2009 (newspapers)
- Former JLPT
- level 1
- Unicode
- U+096B7