幅

fú · HSK 5

width of cloth

📏 巾 cloth + 畐 full = full width of cloth

The 巾 radical means cloth or fabric, and 畐 (fú) acts as the phonetic. Together they originally meant the full width of a bolt of cloth, which extended to measure words for paintings, scrolls, and by metaphor to size or scope.

幅 — cloth radical 巾 + 畐 (full)
A semantic-phonetic compound: 巾 (cloth) gives the meaning, since 幅 originally referred to the width of a bolt of cloth. 畐 supplies the sound, related to 'fu'. The meaning later broadened to 'width' in general and to a measure word for paintings or scrolls.

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