乘
부수: 丿
획수: 10획
乘 has the meanings to ride and to multiply.
乘 = 乘
X = semantic
• 乘 originally depicted a person 亻 who has climbed a tree 木 with their feet astride 北 the top branches.
The meaning of ‘to multiply’ comes from a sound loan.
The character 北 was selected because it resembles the ‘tree branches’ in historical forms. It does not mean ‘north’.
Evolution:
乘 = ’to climb a tree’ ➔ ’to ride’ ➔ ’to make use of’
乘 = ’to climb a tree’ ➔ borrowed use ➔ ’to multiply’
Mnemonic
Visualise a child 亻 standing on the top branches of a tree 木, looking out to see what’s in the northern 北 direction.
Vocab
| 乘客 | 승객 | passenger |
| 乘馬 | 승마 | horse riding |
| 乘車券 | 승차권 | a transportation ticket |
| 搭乘券 | 탑승권 | a boarding pass |
| 乘用車 | 승용차 | a passenger car |
| 四人乘 | 사인승 | a four-seater vehicle |
| 合乘 | 합승 | sharing a vehicle |
| 搭乘 | 탑승 | boarding a vehicle |
| 乘船 | 승선 | boarding a ship |
| 乘車 | 승차 | boarding a train |
| 乘務員 | 승무원 | crew member, flight attendant |
| 乘勢 | 승세 | take advantage of the circumstances |
| 乘法 | 승법 | multiplication (maths) |
| 乘數 | 승수 | multiplier (maths) |
| 階乘 | 계승 | factorial (maths) |
| 乘根 | 승근 | root (maths) |
Other resources
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Chinese Boost
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JLearn.net
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The Kanji Map
Sentence Search
Immersion Kit
Vietnamese
Bibliography
Affiliate links help support uK.
— Daum 사전, [s.v. 乘].
— Grant, B.K. (1982). A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja, [s.v. 712]. Seoul: Hollym.
— Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters, [s.v. 乘].
— Seely, C., Henshall, K.G., & Fan, J. (2016). The Complete Guide to Japanese Kanji: Remembering and Understanding the 2,136 Standard Japanese Characters, [s.v. 336]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.