歙
come together, meet, put away, store
Readings
On'yomi
- キュウ
- キョウ
- ショウ
Kun'yomi
- す.う
Meaning
歙 centers on bringing things together into one place: gathering, meeting, or storing something away. The idea of putting away or storing is a natural extension of drawing things in and keeping them together.
Study
Etymology
歙 combines 翕 (to gather, unite) with 欠 (open mouth, breath), suggesting drawing breath in or gathering together. The exact historical development is uncertain, but the phono-semantic structure is plausible.
Meaning mnemonic
The left side 翕 looks like a gathering of feathers (羽) over a mouth (口), and the right side 欠 is a person with an open mouth. Picture someone calling everyone together with an open mouth, then storing the gathered items away.
Reading mnemonic
For キュウ, imagine gathering things into a queue: queue -> キュウ, and the open mouth (欠) is calling everyone to line up and come together.