刻舟求剑
kè zhoū qiú jiàn · HSK 7
fig. an action made pointless by changed circumstances
🛶🗡️ 刻舟求剑 = carve + boat + seek + sword: notch the moving boat to find a sunk sword
Character by character: 刻 carve, 舟 boat, 求 seek, 剑 sword. A man drops his sword from a boat and cuts a notch on the hull above the spot, then dives there after the boat has drifted on. The label sticks to a thing that moved, so the search is doomed.
刻 — knife radical 刂 + 亥 (phonetic)
A semantic-phonetic compound. The right side 亥 supplies the sound, while the knife radical 刂 on the right gives the meaning, since 刻 originally referred to carving or engraving with a blade. From 'to carve' it extended to marking time notches on a sundial, hence the modern sense of 'a moment' or 'quarter hour'.
求 — pictograph of a fur garment
求 originally depicted a fur coat or pelt, with hairs hanging from the sides. It was later borrowed phonetically to mean 'seek' or 'request,' and the original 'fur' meaning was taken over by 裘. Today 求 almost always means to seek, beg, or pursue.
剑 — 刂 knife radical + 僉 (phonetic, 'all')
剑 (traditional 劍) is a semantic-phonetic compound: the knife radical 刂 carries the meaning of a bladed weapon, while 僉 supplies the sound. It originally referred to a double-edged straight sword, distinct from the single-edged 刀, and the meaning has remained stable since early bronze-age usage.