In Mandarin Chinese, 下 (Pinyin: xià 🔊) has many meanings but all of them have something to do with direction “down”. Predictably enough, it looks very much like the character 上 flipped upside down.
Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:
The relevant oracle bone form of this character is a depiction of one line below another, suggesting the idea of under (contrast 上) → low; lower; below; down; subordinate; descend. Extended meanings from “down” or “below” include come/go down; fall; drop; hang (down/from); hand down; younger; have diarrhea; abort (a fetus); step/move back; withdraw; leave the capital; retire and surrender. By further extension are carry, remove and clear a table (← take down from a table); grate (← grated shavings that fall below); give and do someone the favor of (← hand ← hand down); obtain (← be handed/given); and latter half (← bottom/lower of two halves).
There are a great number of compounds of 下, for instance
- 下 + 午 = 下午 (xiàwǔ 🔊): afternoon
- 上 + 下 = 上下 (shàngxià): up and down, high and low, etc. but also in a sense “about” or “more or less”
- 上 + 上 + 下 + 下 = 上上下下 (shàngshàngxiàxià): everybody; all; the whole
- 天 + 下 = 天下 (tiānxià): everything under the sky; a lofty name of China (but of course!); an ancient Chinese concept of tianxia
I think the physics community should adopt the symbols 上 and 下 for up and down quarks instead of rather boring “u” and “d”.
More photos related to down, downward and sea glass @ Shutterstock.
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