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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

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

Tips

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

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 (here graphic residue)
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 (here graphic)
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