fāng

square

Original meaning: 

cutting edge

Depicts the cutting edge () of a knife blade (). Similar in origin to . Based on the original meaning "cutting edge". The meaning later expanded to "perimeter", "area", and "square".

Components
刀 iconic component

  Iconic component

dāo

  

knife

一 iconic component

  Iconic component

  

one

Depicts the cutting edge of a knife.

Evolution

方 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
方 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
方 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
方 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
方 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

fāng

a square, rectangle; a region; local; square; power or involution (math.); upright; honest; fair and square; direction; side; party (to a contract, dispute etc); place; method; prescription (medicine); just when; only or just; classifier for square things; abbr. for square or cubic meter

 

Fāng

surname Fang

Most common words with 方
Freq.
Word
Meaning

地方

area

方面

respect

方式

way

方法

method

square

Component uses

Meaning component in 12 characters (2 verified)

Sound component in 20 characters (6 verified)

访 仿

Unknown component in 4 characters (0 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*C-paŋ

pjang

fāng

square

*paŋ

pjang

fāng

method

*paŋ

pjang

fāng

just, then


Statistics

HSK level 4

Appears in 98.3822% of movies

160th most common character in movies

60th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Unicode

U+65B9

Shuowen

“方,併船也。象兩舟省緫頭形。汸,方或从水。”


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