保 (bǎo): to protect

Meanings

1 to protect
2 to keep
3 to guarantee

Characters

保

bǎo

protect; keep; maintain

Contains 亻 (person) + 呆 — a person sheltering/protecting.

Examples

你要保好自己的东西。

Nǐ yào bǎo hǎo zìjǐ de dōngxi.

You should keep your belongings safe.

这个药可以保你三天不感冒。

Zhège yào kěyǐ bǎo nǐ sān tiān bù gǎnmào.

This medicine can keep you cold-free for three days.

保质期是三个月。

Bǎozhìqī shì sān gè yuè.

The shelf life is three months.

Tips

usage

保 rarely stands alone in modern Chinese. It's mostly used as part of compound words: 保护 (protect), 保证 (guarantee), 保持 (maintain), 保险 (insurance), 保安 (security guard).

Components

radical

亻 rén

person (radical form of 人)

Left-side person radical — the indexing radical, side-form of 人. Sets the human-protector frame for 保: an adult person guarding, sheltering, taking care of someone or something. Same family of human-action verbs: 住 (reside), 你 (you), 信 (trust), 仁 (benevolence).

semantic

呆 dāi

dumb; to stay; (here: a child)

Right-side 呆 — historically not 呆 'dumb' but a stylized picture of a swaddled baby: upper 口 was the head and lower 木 the body and limbs. The compound depicts an adult cradling a child = 'to protect'. The bundled-baby etymology drives every modern sense of 保 (保护 protect, 保持 preserve).