0030 落

落

This character means ‘to fall,’ ochiru in Japanese, luò in Chinese. The upper element signifies ‘grass,’ and the entire lower portion is just there for phonetic reasons. The idea behind the ‘grass’ element seems to be that of petals falling from flowers.

The lower left element is the abbreviated form for water,

水,

and the lower right element in Chinese means ‘each, every, all.’ This is such a common character that it really needs a good story to help remember it. I’ll say ‘all water falls downward over trees and other plants, carrying petals with it.’