繁体字
fán tǐ zì · HSK 7
traditional Chinese character
🏛️ fán = elaborate, tǐ = body/form, zì = character — elaborate-form writing
Traditional characters kept their full strokes when simplified ones were created in the 1950s. The word literally says elaborate-bodied characters, the ornate originals before simplification trimmed them down.
字 — roof 宀 + child 子
Originally depicted a child 子 under a roof 宀, suggesting birth or rearing a child in the home. The meaning later extended to 'to give birth, nurture' and then to 'written character', since characters were seen as offspring derived from earlier pictographs.