切
부수: 刀
획수: 4획
切 has the meanings to slice, to approach, to be intimate and to be exact.
切 = 七 + 刀
X = semantic/phonetic + semantic
• 七 depicts intersecting lines and represents the meaning ‘to cut’.
• 刀 depicts a knife and represents the meaning ‘to cut with a knife’.
切 was originally written as 七 until the character was adopted for the number seven (as they have the same sound).
The single character 切 is used to represent two different sounds: qiē/qiè in Chinese and 절/체 in Korean. The meanings associated with qiē(절) and qiè(체) are related and overlap.
Evolution:
切 = to cut with a knife ➔ to slice
切 = to cut with a knife ➔ to approach ➔ to intimate
切 = to cut with a knife ➔ to approach ➔ to be exact
Mnemonic
Imagine an infomercial where the presenter is pitching a set of seven 七 steak knives 刀. His selling point is that these knives 刀 are all 切 you will ever need.
Vocab
| 切斷/截斷 | 절단 | cut off; amputate |
| 切下 | 절하 | depreciation |
| 切除 | 절제 | extraction |
| 迫切 | 박절 | heartless |
| 切取線 | 절취선 | dotted line for cutting |
| 帝王切開 | 제왕절개 | Cesarean section |
| 切迫 | 절박 | imminent; urgent |
| 品切 | 품절 | being sold out |
| 親切 | 친절 | kindness |
| 懇切 | 간절 | earnest; sincere |
| 切切하다 | 절절하다 | very sincere |
| 一切 | 일체 | all; entirely |
| 切實 | 절실 | real; urgent; fervent |
| 適切 | 적절 | appropriate; suitable |
| 切感 | 절감 | deep awareness |
Additional notes
Some dictionaries will only state that 切(절) means ‘to cut’. However, words such as 친절 (kindness) and 절박 (urgency) show that there are additional meanings of ‘close’ (as in a close relationship) and ‘imminent’ (as in a closely approaching situation). In Chinese, it is qiè(체) which has the meanings associated with ‘close’ (think of an exact cut or the exact point made by intersecting lines). Here we see an overlap between qiē(절) and qiè(체). This shows that there isn’t a strict delineating difference between the two.
切 should be considered as a single character with two sounds.
Different Unicode characters are used to differentiate qiē/절 and qiè/체 — (U+5207) and (U+FA00), respectively.
Other resources
Image searches
Google
Bing
Yahoo Japan
Baidu (click 图片)
Sogou
Pinterest
Flickr
CJKV
CJKV Dict
Wikitionary
Unihan Database (절|U+5207)
Unihan Database (체|U+FA00)
Korean
Chinese
Written Chinese
Arch Chinese
ZDic
CC-Canto
Chinese Text Project
The Chinese University of Hong Kong (etymology)
Chinese Boost
Japanese
Takoboto
Jisho
JLearn.net
Sakura
The Kanji Map
Sentence Search
Immersion Kit
Vietnamese
Bibliography
Affiliate links help support uK.
— Daum 사전, [s.v. 切].
— Grant, B.K. (1982). A Guide To Korean Characters: Reading and Writing Hangul and Hanja, [s.v. 66]. Seoul: Hollym.
— Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters, [s.v. 切, 七, 刀].
— 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. 173]. Singapore: Tuttle Publishing.