穿上
chuānshàng · HSK 4
put on
👕 穿 (wear) + 上 (on) = put on (clothes go onto body)
穿 by itself means to wear or pass through; 上 means up/on. Together they form the action of putting clothing onto yourself. The 上 marks completion — the garment ends up on you.
穿 — cave 穴 on top + tooth 牙 below
Originally a compound suggesting a tooth (牙) boring through a cave or hole (穴), giving the core sense of 'pierce through' or 'penetrate'. From this came extended meanings like 'pass through', 'wear (clothes)' — i.e. pass the body through fabric — and 'bore a hole'.
上 — horizontal line above a baseline
上 is an indicative character (指事): a short stroke placed above a longer reference line shows the concept of 'above' or 'up'. The earliest oracle-bone forms used two horizontal lines for this; the modern shape added a vertical stroke for clarity. The core meaning of 'upper, above, to ascend' has stayed stable for millennia.