He worked diligently from dawn to dusk for the country.
Tips
usage
夙 is literary. The 'early morning' sense survives in 夙夜 (from dawn till night, working hard); the 'long-held' sense in 夙愿 (a long-cherished wish) and 夙敌 (an old enemy).
Components
ideograph
夙sù
early morning toil
Originally showed a person bent at work in the small hours under the night sky, conveying rising early to labor before dawn. From 'early morning' it extended to 'long-standing, long-held.' The modern six-stroke shape is read as one unit and does not split into independent meaningful parts. Indexed under the evening radical by tradition.
Filed under radical 夕 (xī, #36) by convention. 夕 is not a separate component in 夙, so no strokes are highlighted.
