秃 (tū): bald (lacking hair)

Meanings

1 bald (lacking hair)
2 bare; barren; denuded
3 blunt (lacking a point)

Characters

秃

tū

bald; bare

Examples

他年纪轻轻就秃了。

Tā niánjì qīngqīng jiù tū le.

He went bald at a young age.

冬天的树都秃了。

Dōngtiān de shù dōu tū le.

The trees are all bare in winter.

Tips

usage

秃头 means 'bald head/bald person.' In internet slang, 秃 has become associated with overwork - 加班加到秃 (working overtime until you go bald) is a common joke among young professionals.

Components

radical

禾 hé

grain; standing cereal plant

Grain radical on top, the indexing component. It pictures a grain plant with its drooping head and is normally a semantic marker for cereal chars (稻, 秋, 种). In 秃 the picture is borrowed visually: the slanting 禾 cap suggests a head with hair, soon to be lost below.

semantic

几 jī

small table; bare frame

Bottom 几 is a low table or bare-bones frame - just two strokes leaving everything exposed. The whole char reads as 'plant-head sitting on a bare frame', a strong visual mnemonic for a bald or denuded surface. Etymology is loose, but the picture lands cleanly for learners.