verb #9,742

Meanings

  1. 1 to open; to start; to initiate
  2. 2 to enlighten; to inform

Examples

Zhè běnshū gěi le wǒ hěn dà de qǐfā.
This book gave me great inspiration.
Fēijī jíjiāng qǐháng.
The plane is about to depart.
Qǐng qǐ kāi pínggài.
Please open the bottle cap.

Tips

usage
启发 (qǐfā) = to inspire. 启动 (qǐdòng) = to start/launch. 开启 (kāiqǐ) = to open/begin.

Components

radical
kǒu
mouth
Mouth radical bottom-right is the indexing radical and adds the speech sense — to enlighten or inform someone by speaking. The original form had (hand-with-stick) instead of , but the simplified shape kept from the variant , locking the speech sense in.
semantic
door; household
Top-left pictures a single-leaf door — half of the double-door . The original idea of was a hand opening a door, hence to open or initiate. Same door element drives (room), (fan/leaf), (flat-on-door), all door-frame chars.

Stroke Order