石 | shí

In Mandarin Chinese, 石 (Pinyin: shí 🔊) means “stone” or “rock”.

Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

A depiction of a rock or stone beneath a cliff, suggesting a substantial pile of rocks/stones. Sterile/barren is by association (← rocky, barren soil), as is rigid (← rigid objects). Unit of volume is a borrowed meaning.

According to Wiktionary, this hanzi is a pictogram of

a stone beneath a cliff (厂). The cliff was subsequently distorted into 丆. Alternatively, a cave set into the side of a cliff or mountain.

This latter hypothesis can explain why 口 (“mouth” etc.) is a part of 石.

Some compounds of 石 include

• 火 + 石 = 火石 (huǒshí): flint
• 玉 + 石 = 玉石 (yùshí): jade stone; (figuratively) good and bad
• 白 + 云 + 石 = 白云石 (báiyúnshí): dolomite
• 石 + 子 = 石子 (shízǐ): pebble
• 石 + 工 = 石工 (shígōng): stonemason, mason
• 石 + 田 = 石田 (shítián): (literary) uncultivable land; (literary, figuratively) useless thing
• 石 + 油 = 石油 (shíyóu 🔊) ): petroleum

More photos related to rocks and stones @ Shutterstock.

手 | shǒu

In Mandarin Chinese, 手 (Pinyin: shǒu 🔊) means “hand”. It also has a number of derived meanings such as “handy”, “portable”, “handwritten”, or used as a suffix to create names of specialists or experts in something.

Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

A depiction of a hand showing the five fingers in a curved, gripping position. Extended meanings include arm; paw; foreleg; a handle; helper; a means; technique; (in board games) a move; a type; a direction; and handwriting.

Ponte Ryūrui notes:

Although the modern form of the character 手 may be somewhat misleading (6 fingers), the “hand” radical 扌 still resembles the ancient pictographs. <...> The upper stroke in standard script is the result of aesthetical modification made to the first stroke in the cursive hand which imitates the “middle finger”.

Compounds of 手 include

手 + 工 = 手工 (shǒugōng 🔊): handwork; manually 水 + 手 = 水手 (shuǐshǒu 🔊): saylor 一 + 手 = 一手 (yīshǒu): single-handedly; proficiency, skill 好 + 手 = 好手 (hǎoshǒu): expert, professional 生 + 手 = 生手 (shēngshǒu): novice, new to a job 国 + 手 = 国手 (guóshǒu): national champion, grand master 出 + 手 = 出手 (chūshǒu): to sell (goods); to spend (money) 入 + 手 = 入手 (rùshǒu): to start with, to begin with; to buy, to obtain

In Japanese, 手 can be pronounced as te 🔊, as in 空手 karate 🔊, or shu, as in 選手 senshu 🔊 “player”.

手に戻る 鷹の眼に 入る日哉 大魯 Te ni modoru taka no manako ni irihi kana The sun, In the eye of the falcon That returned to my hand. Tairo

Japanese has different logic (from that of Chinese), and in some compounds of 手 you may hear neither te nor shu. For instance, 上手 “skillful” or “good at” is pronounced jōzu but 下手 “unskilled” or “bad at” is pronounced heta:

世の中は なく虫さへも 上手下手 一茶 Yo no naka wa naku mushi sae mo jōzu heta Even among insects, in this world, Some are good at singing, Some bad. Issa (All haiku translated by R.H. Blyth)

More photos related to hands, beads, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

美 | měi

In Mandarin Chinese, 美 (Pinyin: měi 🔊) has many meanings most of which have something to do with beauty. It could be an adjective for “beautiful”, “pretty”, “good-looking”, “fine”, “delicious” etc.; a verb meaning “to beautify”, “to praise”, “to be pleased with oneself”; or a noun for “beauty”, “beautiful things” or “good deed”.

According to Wiktionary, 美 is a pictogram of

羊 (“goat, sheep or feathers”) + 大 (“big”) — a person with a headdress of feathers or ram’s horn.

Likewise, Uncle Hanzi mentions “possibly a sheep skin hat”. Not exactly the first thing that I associate with beauty, but why not. Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

The present form combines 大 person standing outstretched and 羊 sheep (originally, goat), but neither of these elements can supply the Old Chinese pronunciation of the character. The phonetically close term conveyed by 㒼 <mán 🔊> <...> suggests that 美, like 㒼, involved the notion “cover the body completely with an animal skin that has its head still attached”. The exact provenance of the meanings beautiful and good is uncertain, as is the identity of the element replaced by 大.

Many compounds of 美 include

• 美 + 好 = 美好 (měihǎo): fine, wonderful, glorious, happy
• 美 + 人 = 美人 (měirén): beautiful woman, lovely lady
• 美 + 甲 “nail” = 美甲 (měijiǎ): manicure and pedicure
• 美 + 容 “to allow” = 美容 (měiróng): to have a beauty treatment
• 美容 + 院 “courtyard” = 美容院 (měiróngyuàn): beauty parlour
• 美 + 工 “work” = 美工 (měigōng): art design

美 is also short for 亚美利加 / 亞美利加 (Yàměilìjiā), which is a phonetic approximation of the word “America”. So make no mistake: 美国 means “American country”, not “beautiful country”.

• 美 + 洲 “continent” = 美洲 (Měizhōu): America (as a continent), Americas
• 中 “centre” + 美洲 = 中美洲 (Zhōngměizhōu 🔊): Central America
• 北 “north” + 美洲 = 北美洲 (Běiměizhōu 🔊): North America
• 南 “south” + 美洲 = 南美洲 (Nánměizhōu): South America
• 美 + 国 “country” = 美国 (Měiguó 🔊): the United States of America

More photos related to beauty, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

工 | gōng

In Mandarin Chinese, 工 (Pinyin: gōng 🔊) has a variety of meanings related to work. Apart from “work” itself, it could stand for “worker”, “working class”, “working day”, “industry”, “skill” or “project”.

According to Wiktionary, 工 is a pictogram of “a bladed tool”. What tool? Many historical forms of this character remind me of a spade or a shovel. Or maybe of an axe head — cf. 王 (which is like 工 with an extra stroke) and discussion therein. On the other hand, Lawrence J. Howell writes in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters that 工 is

A depiction of a long hollow tube used as a tool both to pierce and to connect → work; construct (← work/construct using connecting pipes/tubes) → artisan; specialist; skillful.

Many compounds of 工 include

• 工 + 人 = 工人 (gōngrén 🔊): worker, labourer
• 人 + 工 = 人工 (réngōng 🔊): man-made, artificial
• 木 + 工 = 木工 (mùgōng): woodwork, carpentry; woodworker, carpenter
• 小 + 工 = 小工 (xiǎogōng): unskilled worker
• 大 + 工 = 大工 (dàgōng): (literary) skilled worker; carpenter
• 天 + 工 = 天工 (tiāngōng): (literary) work of nature

More photos related to beads, hanzi and calligraphy @ Shutterstock.

红 | hóng

In Mandarin Chinese, 红 (Pinyin: hóng 🔊) is an adjective for (colour) “red”. Another meaning is “popular” or “in vogue”.

红 is a simplified form of the traditional character 紅, which is a phono-semantic compound of semantic 糸 “silk” and phonetic 工 (gōng 🔊), “labour”, “work”. Something to do with (textile) workers’ movement and, by extension, revolution, communism? Not exactly (although 红 grew to represent all that too). Lawrence J. Howell explains in his Etymological Dictionary of Han/Chinese Characters:

彔 thread + 工 here an abbreviated form of 汞 (gǒng) mercury → fabric/textiles dyed a deep red (compare 絳) → crimson; rouge → lipstick.

I presume that “mercury” here refers to cinnabar (mercury sulphide), a historic source for the red pigment vermilion. According to Wikipedia, in China cinnabar has been used for its colour since as early as the Yangshao culture (around 5000 BC to 3000 BC).

Interesting compounds of 红 include

• 口 + 红 = 口红 (kǒuhóng): lipstick
• 月 + 月 + 红 = 月月红 (yuèyuèhóng): China rose (Rosa chinensis)
• 红 + 人 = 红人 (hóngrén): favourite; pet; rising star; celebrity
• 红 + 花 = 红花 (hónghuā): safflower (Carthamus tinctorius)
• 红 + 茶 = 红茶 (hóngchá): black tea

Wait a minute, I hear you saying, didn’t you just tell us that “black” is 黑? Yes, I did, and yes, you read that right: what in Europe we call “black tea” (because of the colour of the tea leaves), Chinese call 红茶, i.e. “red tea” (referring to the colour of the liquid). Conversely, what Chinese call 黑茶 (hēichá), literally “black tea”, means fermented tea such as Pu-erh, which in Europe is known as “red tea”, té rojo etc. I hope everything is red black clear now.

Incidentally, the symbols above were created using Pu-erh tea because I’ve already used the leaves of 红茶 to create the hanzi 乌 and 烏. So there.

More photos related to safflower, tea and colour red @ Shutterstock.