裕 (yù): abundant

Meanings

1 abundant
2 plentiful
3 well-off

Characters

裕

yù

abundant; well-off

Examples

HSK 4

节用裕民是古代治国的理想。

Jié yòng yù mín shì gǔdài zhìguó de lǐxiǎng.

Frugal spending and a prosperous people was an ideal of governance in antiquity.

HSK 7-9

他家境富裕。

Tā jiājìng fùyù.

His family is well-off.

Tips

usage

Standalone 裕 is rarely used in modern speech - you'll meet it inside compounds: 富裕 (wealthy), 宽裕 (well-off, plenty of room), 充裕 (ample), 余裕 (leeway). Think of it as the "-affluence" suffix character.

memory

Radical 衤 (clothing) on the left + 谷 (valley) on the right: imagine clothes piled valley-deep - that's 裕, abundance.

Components

radical

衤 yī

clothing (radical form of 衣)

Left clothing radical - five strokes, the side-form of 衣. Indexes 裕 in the garment family with 袖 sleeve, 袋 bag, 裤 trousers, 衫 shirt. Anchors the meaning of abundance: in early Chinese society wealth was measured in cloth and clothing supplies - a prosperous household had robes to spare.

phonetic

谷 gǔ

valley; ravine

Right 谷 supplies the sound - gǔ drifting to yù via well-attested g/y alternation in classical readings. 谷 itself depicts a stream flowing between two mountains, meaning 'valley.' Carries a faint semantic flavor: a wide valley is roomy and open, just as 裕 means 'roomy, ample, well-off.' Same phonetic in 浴 to bathe, 欲 desire.