著

zhù
verb #4,865

Meanings

  1. 1 to write; to compose
  2. 2 outstanding; notable
  3. 3 literary work; book

Examples

HSK 1
Tā zhù le yì běn shū.
He wrote a book.
HSK 4
Zhè wèi zuòjiā hěn zhùmíng.
This author is very famous.

Tips

usage
著名 (famous), 著作 (literary work), 显著 (notable/remarkable).
usage
Different from 着 (zhe/zháo/zhuó) though they share origin.

Components

radical
艹 cǎo
grass; plant (top radical)
Top 艹 is the indexing grass radical in its 3-stroke compressed form (Kangxi #140). 著 originally named a milfoil plant whose stalks were used in divination. From 'a clearly displayed plant set out for divining' came 'visible, prominent, notable' (显著), and from there 'to compose' (著作). Same radical: 草, 花, 茶, 葬.
phonetic
者 zhě
one who; person (here phonetic)
Bottom 者 supplies the sound - zhě shifting to zhù through regular tone-and-vowel drift. 者 itself depicts boiling sugarcane (later borrowed for 'one who'). Same phonetic family in 都, 暑, 煮, 储 - wide drift across this rhyme cluster. Faint visibility flavour matches 著's 'prominent' sense.

Stroke Order

著 zhù