0074 送

送

This character means ‘to send.’ It’s pronounced SŌ and okuru in Japanese and sòng in Chinese. Remember that for Japanese, the pronunciation in upper-case letters is the one derived from the Chinese of the time when Japan adopted the Chinese writing system. Of course, Japanese already had a word meaning ‘send,’ and that word is represented in lower-case letters.

The character wrapping around the left and lower sides,

辶,

means ‘walk, walking.’ The other part of the character,

关,

now means ‘a frontier pass,’ ‘close,’ and ‘relation,’ and it’s not commonly used in Japanese on its own. Sears says it’s a contraction of a character that meant ‘the maid of the bride, who is sent to the bride’s new home with her.’ Thus, the character originally meant ‘to send off the new bride on her wedding day.’