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叔

shū
noun #18,559

Meanings

  1. 1 uncle (father's younger brother)
  2. 2 polite term for a man of one's father's generation

Examples

HSK 1
叔叔好！
Shūshu hǎo!
Hello, uncle!
HSK 1
我叔叔住在北京。
Wǒ shūshu zhù zài Běijīng.
My uncle lives in Beijing.

Tips

usage
叔叔 is used both for father's younger brother and as a polite address for older men. Father's older brother is 伯伯.

Components

radical
又 yòu
right hand; again
Right 又 - a right hand with three fingers and a wrist, the indexing radical. Picturing a hand picking beans from the vine on the left, 叔 first meant a younger brother who fetched things or a junior helper, then narrowed to the specific 'father's younger brother' relationship in kinship terms.
semantic
上 shàng
above; upright
Upper-left 上-shape - a graphic residue of the older 尗 component, originally a bean-vine drawing. The modern shape happens to look like 上, but it doesn't carry that meaning here. Sits with 小 below to form the left side, where a hand 又 reaches up to pluck beans.
semantic
小 xiǎo
small
Lower-left 小-shape - again a graphic residue, the legs and tendrils of the original bean-vine graph 尗 now stylised into something resembling 小. Doesn't carry the 'small' meaning here. The whole left side together depicts a climbing vine being picked.

Stroke Order

叔 shū