或者
huòzhě · HSK 2
or
或 = or/maybe + 者 = -er/one who; together: 'or' as a choice
或 on its own means 'or/perhaps' (a soldier 戈 guarding a border 囗 — uncertain which side). 者 is a nominalizer ('the one that'). 或者 links alternatives: A 或者 B = A or B.
或 — 戈 dagger-axe + 口 mouth/area + 一 boundary line
或 originally depicted a dagger-axe (戈) guarding a bounded territory (口 with 一), meaning 'country' or 'domain' — the ancestor of 國/国. Over time it was borrowed for the abstract sense 'perhaps, maybe, or,' so a new 囗 enclosure was added around it to write the original 'country' meaning.
者 — old/elder 耂 + say 曰
Originally depicted sugarcane or a similar plant, but the form was reanalyzed as 耂 (old) over 曰 (say). It became a grammatical suffix meaning 'one who…' or 'the…thing,' nominalizing verbs and adjectives. Today 者 mainly marks agents or categories, as in 学者 'scholar' or 记者 'reporter.'
huò zhě · HSK 3
or
或 = or/perhaps + 者 = -er/one who; together = 'or'
或 on its own means 'perhaps/or', and 者 is a nominalizer suffix meaning 'the one who'. Pairing them forms 或者, the everyday word for 'or' linking alternatives in a sentence.
或 — 戈 dagger-axe + 口 mouth/area + 一 boundary line
或 originally depicted a dagger-axe (戈) guarding a bounded territory (口 with 一), meaning 'country' or 'domain' — the ancestor of 國/国. Over time it was borrowed for the abstract sense 'perhaps, maybe, or,' so a new 囗 enclosure was added around it to write the original 'country' meaning.
者 — old/elder 耂 + say 曰
Originally depicted sugarcane or a similar plant, but the form was reanalyzed as 耂 (old) over 曰 (say). It became a grammatical suffix meaning 'one who…' or 'the…thing,' nominalizing verbs and adjectives. Today 者 mainly marks agents or categories, as in 学者 'scholar' or 记者 'reporter.'