捌 (bā) · eight (banker's anti-fraud form of 八)

Meanings

1 eight (banker's anti-fraud form of 八)
2 (archaic) to split apart by hand

Characters

捌

bā

formal numeral eight

Examples

HSK 7-9

支票上把八写成捌，防止改动。

Zhīpiào shàng bǎ bā xiě chéng bā, fángzhǐ gǎi dòng.

On a cheque the number eight is written as 捌 to prevent tampering.

Tips

history

捌 is not a normal word. It survives almost only as the formal accountancy spelling of the number 八 (eight), used on cheques, contracts and ledgers so the figure cannot be altered. The bare-hand-splitting sense in old texts is now obsolete.

usage

Paired with the other formal numerals 壹贰叁 on financial documents; never used for counting in speech.

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand

扌 is the hand radical 手 in left-side form, here pointing at the original verb sense of splitting something apart with the hands.

phonetic

别 bié

separate; part

别 supplies the sound and reinforces the meaning, since 别 itself means to separate or part. The borrowed reading for the accountancy numeral has shifted to 八.