报 (bào): to report; to declare

Meanings

1 to report; to declare
2 newspaper
3 to repay; to retaliate

Characters

报

bào

report; newspaper; repay

Examples

你看今天的报了吗？

Nǐ kàn jīntiān de bào le ma?

Did you read today's newspaper?

我要报名参加比赛。

Wǒ yào bàomíng cānjiā bǐsài.

I want to sign up for the competition.

请报你的名字。

Qǐng bào nǐ de míngzi.

Please state your name.

Tips

usage

报 appears in many compounds: 报名 (sign up), 报告 (report), 报道 (news report), 报纸 (newspaper), 报答 (repay a kindness).

Components

radical

扌 shǒu

hand (radical form)

Left hand radical — the indexing component. The simplification of traditional 報 replaced the dense 幸 element on the left with this hand. Marks 报 as an action: handing in a report, hands lifted in announcement, hands repaying a debt. Same family as 抱, 推, 抓.

semantic

卩 jié

kneeling figure; seal

Upper-right kneeling figure — pictures a person bent at the knee, originally signifying submission before authority. In traditional 報 this stood with a hand pressing down on it, an image of judgment being announced over a kneeling subject. Same shape in 服 (submit), 即 (approach).

semantic

又 yòu

right hand

Lower-right hand — pressed against the kneeling figure above, this completes the announcement-and-judgment image. The two together in traditional 報 carried the "official report, pronouncement, retribution" senses. The hand here drives the action: hand-on-shoulder declaration.