noun

Meanings

  1. 1 a hairpin (used to fasten a bun or hold a cap in place)
  2. 2 the age of fifteen, when a girl came of age (in ancient China)

Examples

Tā yòng yù jī bǎ tóufa pán chéng jì.
She fixed her hair into a bun with a jade hairpin.
古代女子十五岁及笄表示成年
Gǔdài nǚzǐ shíwǔsuì xíng jíjī zhī lǐ, biǎoshì chéngnián.
In ancient times a girl held a hairpin ceremony at fifteen to mark adulthood.

Tips

culture
Beyond the literal hairpin, 及笄 ('reaching the hairpin') is a classical term for a girl turning fifteen — old enough to pin up her hair and be considered a young woman ready for marriage. The bamboo radical recalls that early pins were made of bamboo.

Components

radical
zhúzìtóu
bamboo (top radical form of 竹)
The bamboo radical, the cap form of . It is meaningful here — the earliest hairpins were carved from bamboo, so the radical names the material.
phonetic
kāi
to open
Standalone reads kāi; here it supplies the sound, drifting to jī. It is the phonetic element, carrying no meaning to the hairpin.

Stroke Order