shǒu
defend
Depicts a hand (寸) guarding a building (宀).
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Jin dynasty (266-420 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
shǒu
defend, protect, guard, conserve; to guard; to defend; to keep watch; to abide by the law; to observe (rules or ritual); nearby; adjoining
Most common words with 守
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
to guard | ||
to defend | ||
to comply with | ||
conservative | ||
to guard |
Component uses
Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*s-tuʔ | syuwX | shǒu | keep, guard |
*s.tuʔ-s | syuwH | shòu | territory in somebody's guard, fief |
Statistics
HSK level 4
Appears in 46.6442% of movies
876th most common character in movies
796th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 6 |
Unicode | U+5B88 |
Shuowen | “守,守官也。从宀,从寸。寺府之事者。从寸,寸,法度也。” |
Sources
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
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