锄 (chú): hoe (farming tool)

Measure Word

一把锄 bǎ

Meanings

1 hoe (farming tool)
2 to hoe / weed
3 to root out / eliminate

Characters

锄

chú

hoe / to hoe / to root out

Examples

他扛着锄去地里干活。

Tā káng zhe chú qù dì lǐ gànhuó.

He carried his hoe out to the fields to work.

我们要锄掉田里的杂草。

Wǒmen yào chú diào tiánlǐ de zácǎo.

We need to hoe out the weeds in the field.

锄强扶弱是侠客的本分。

Chúqiángfúruò shì xiákè de běnfèn.

Rooting out the strong and aiding the weak is a knight-errant's duty.

Tips

culture

Famous in the poem 《悯农》 (Min Nong, 'Sympathy for the Peasants') by Tang poet Li Shen: 锄禾日当午，汗滴禾下土 — 'hoeing grain when the sun is high, sweat drips into the soil beneath the rice.' Most Chinese kids learn this poem in primary school.

memory

钅 (metal) radical + 助 (help) → a metal tool that helps the farmer.

Components

radical

钅 jīn

metal (radical form of 金)

Side-metal radical on the left — compressed five-stroke form of 金 reformed in 1956. Indexes 锄 in the metal-tool family with 锅 pot, 锤 hammer, 镰 sickle, 铁 iron. 锄 names the iron-bladed hoe used to break up soil and weed crops, so the metal radical names the blade-stuff doing the digging.

phonetic

助 zhù

to help; to assist

Right side 助 supplies the sound — zhù shifted to chú through Old-Chinese sound change. 助 itself ('to help, with strength') adds a memorable semantic echo: the hoe is the farmer's helper, the iron friend that lightens the back-breaking work in the field. A neat sound-and-sense overlay.