了
le · HSK 1
entirely
✅ 了 = completion particle; 'le' marks an action done, finished, entirely
了 (le) is the aspect marker for completed action — 'I ate' becomes 吃了. Etymology: original pictograph of a swaddled child with arms bound, meaning 'finished/concluded'. As an adverb reading 'liǎo' it means 'entirely, completely'.
了 — pictograph of swaddled child with no arms
了 originally depicted an infant wrapped in swaddling cloth, with the arms hidden or bound — a variant of 子 (child) without the arms. From 'finished wrapping' it extended to mean 'completed' or 'finished,' which is its main modern grammatical use as an aspect particle marking completed action.