封 (fēng): to seal

Meanings

1 to seal
2 measure word for letters

Characters

封

fēng

to seal; measure word for letters; envelope

土 (earth) + 寸 (inch/hand) — pressing earth to seal something, like sealing a letter.

Examples

我写了一封信。

Wǒ xiě le yì fēng xìn.

I wrote a letter.

他收到了三封邮件。

Tā shōudào le sān fēng yóujiàn.

He received three emails/letters.

请封上这个信封。

Qǐng fēng shàng zhège xìnfēng.

Please seal this envelope.

Tips

grammar

封 as a measure word is specifically for letters and emails: 一封信 (a letter), 一封邮件 (an email). As a verb, it means 'to seal.'

Components

radical

寸 cùn

inch; hand (radical)

Inch radical on the right — the indexing radical, depicting a hand performing a careful, measured action (the dot marks the pulse-point a thumb's length below the wrist). The original sense of 封 was ceremonially granting or sealing land; from 'seal a territory' came 'seal a letter.'

semantic

圭 guī

jade tablet; mounded earth (semantic)

Left stacks two 土 (earth) into 圭 — originally pictured a tree on a mound of soil that marked a feudal boundary. Carries the sense of 'enfeoff, grant land' to a vassal, the deepest layer of meaning in 封 (the king piled earth at the new fief's edge).