朴 (pǔ): plain

Meanings

1 plain
2 simple
3 unadorned

Characters

朴

pǔ

plain; simple; unadorned

Examples

她为人很朴实。

Tā wéirén hěn pǔshí.

She is a very down-to-earth person.

这里的人非常淳朴。

Zhèlǐ de rén fēicháng chúnpǔ.

The people here are very simple and honest.

Tips

usage

The everyday reading is pǔ, meaning plain or unadorned, as in 朴素 (simple) and 朴实 (down-to-earth). Two niche readings sit elsewhere: pō appears in 朴树 (hackberry tree), and pò in 朴刀 (a long-handled saber). The common surname reading piáo has its own entry.

Components

radical

木 mù

tree; wood

Left tree radical, the indexing component. 朴 originally named the bark or unworked wood of a tree, raw and unshaped. From that came the figurative sense of plain, simple, unadorned. 木 anchors a family of timber-related chars: 板 (plank), 桥 (bridge), 林 (forest), 材 (material).

phonetic

卜 bǔ

to divine; oracle-bone crack

Right 卜 supplies a rough sound (bǔ to pǔ, a p/b shift). Phonetic family includes 仆 (servant), 扑 (pounce), 赴 (head to). Pure phonetic role, no semantic flavor of divination here, just sound.