0073 紙

紙

This character means ‘paper.’ In Japanese it’s pronounced kami and in Chinese it’s zhī.

The left-hand figure,

糹(Chinese style); 糸 (Japanese style),

means ‘silk’ in Chinese today and ‘thread’ in Japanese. The archaic version,

clearly shows that 糸 represents two cocoons on a spindle from which threads dangle down for spinning. In early days, writing was often done on silk, so it’s understandable that the word ‘paper’ might be related to ‘threads’ or ‘silk.’

The right-hand figure,

氏

means ‘clan’ or ‘family name,’ and serves here to give a clue to to the sound of the character, which does those of us learning to read today’s languages little good for remembering the meaning. Luckily, it looks a bit like a flat surface that has been folded across the middle, like a book or newspaper, which should help us remember the meaning—‘paper.’