发fā

发

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Simplified · Today

繁体

Traditional Chinese

In traditional Chinese, 發 (fā) carries the imagery of releasing an arrow: the left side depicts a bent bow, while the right combines a foot and a hand, suggesting the motion of sending something forward. This character was merged with 髮 (hair) during simplification, creating one of the few Chinese characters that now represents two entirely unrelated meanings.

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Shuowen

Hair. The character combines the long-hair radical (髟) with the phonetic component (巴), depicting flowing hair on the head; it originally meant hair on the human scalp and later extended to anything resembling hair or strands. In its other form, the bow radical (弓) with an arrow (矢) represents shooting forth, the original meaning of sending out or emitting, which evolved to mean developing and flourishing.

Pinyin

fā· HSK 1

发fā

Character evolution

Shuowen

Pinyin