木 is a key radical (木字旁) appearing in hundreds of characters related to wood or trees: 林 (forest), 树 (tree), 桌 (table), 椅 (chair), 板 (board), 果 (fruit).
history
木 is a pictograph of a tree — the horizontal stroke is the branches, the vertical is the trunk, and the bottom strokes are roots.
Components
pictograph
木mù
tree; wood
A pictograph of a tree in profile. The top horizontal is the spreading canopy, the vertical is the trunk, and the two splayed strokes at the bottom are the roots gripping the soil. One of the original Kangxi radicals; appears as a left-side cap in words for kinds of trees, wooden objects, and things made of wood.
Radical
TreeKangxi #75
Pictograph of a tree with branches above and roots below — among the highest-yield radicals in Chinese. Marks anything wooden, arboreal, or made from timber: 林 (forest), 森 (dense), 树 (tree), 桌 (table), 椅 (chair), 板 (plank), 桥 (bridge), 根 (root), 果 (fruit). Reliably semantic.
