Character etymology for Elementary - Checking Baggage 和
Today we look at a very common and also tricky character 和 hé (and, harmony)
Character: 和
Traditional form: 和
Pinyin: hé
Meaning: and,harmony, peace, peaceful, calm
Frequency: 24
Strokes: 8
Decomposition:
禾 hé (grain) + 口 kǒu (mouth)
Radical part: 口 kǒu
Alternative forms of radical: none
Radical meaning: mouth
Stroke animation: (the strokes are drawn the direction the picture is tipping)
Etymology:
In early seal script the character looked like this:
The left part, yue, is the name of an ancient musical instrument that indicated the meaning and the right part, he, indicated the sound. The sound of the music is peaceful. The character anyhow quickly evolved so in seal script it where written like this:
This is 禾 hé (grain) + 口 kǒu (mouth) grain is man's staple food and most agreeable to the mouth. Grain agrees with mouth to produce harmony.
I like to remember it like this: mouth AND grain makes my hunger go away and fill me with HARMONY hence the meanings ("and" and "Harmony") are remembered.
Link to nciku usage of the character 和 (examples, sound etc)
http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E5%92%8C/1305932 The tricky part:
和 pronounced as hé and with the meanings "and / together with / with / sum / union / peace / harmony / " is the absolutely most common one but the tricky part is that the character actually do have more meanings and even more pronunciations e.g.:
和 hè
verb join in the singing
一唱百和
yíchàngbǎihè
和 huò
verb mix; blend
豆沙里和点儿糖
mix a little sugar into the bean paste
dòushā lǐ huò diǎnr tánɡ
和 hé
1. adjective gentle; mild; kind
温和 temperate; mild; moderate
wēnhé
和 huó soft / warm
Please join in the discussion about this very common word and its tricky behavior.
Example words:
共和国 gòng hé guó republic
和谐 hé xié harmonious
中华人民共和国 Zhōng huá Rén mín Gòng hé guó The People's Republic of China
和平 hé píng peace
平和 píng hé gentle / mild / moderate / placid
和尚 hé shang Buddhist monk
柔和 róu hé gentle / soft
中和 zhōng hé to neutralize
总和 zǒng hé sum
和服 hé fú kimono / Japanese: traditional national clothing, as opposed to Western clothing 洋服
共和 gòng hé republic
维和 wéi hé peace-keeping
和局 hé jú draw / tied game
和谈 hé tán peace talks
讲和 jiǎng hé peace talks
和约 hé yuē peace treaty
和平鸽 hé píng gē dove of peace
义和乱 yì hé luàn the Boxer uprising
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