Origin

This character appears to be a pictograph of animal hide or leather. The shape originally depicted a stretched-out animal skin, shown with the four legs splayed at the corners—you can still see a hint of this in the enclosed rectangular form with extensions. Because leather was essential for clothing and tools in ancient times, the character came to mean leather and skin. The connection to "reform" and "become serious" likely developed later through metaphorical uses, since reforming something involves changing or treating it differently, much like how raw hide must be processed to become usable leather.

AI-generated (claude-haiku-4-5), not yet reviewed. Formation type (automated guess): Pictographic or simple.