诸如此类
zhū rú cǐ lèi · HSK 7
things like this
📋 诸 various + 如 like + 此 this + 类 kind = various-like-this-kind, and so on
如 — woman radical 女 + mouth 口
Originally a phono-semantic compound where 女 (woman) suggested compliance and 口 (mouth) indicated speaking or following orders. The early sense was 'to follow' or 'to comply with what is said,' which extended to 'to be like' or 'as if.' Modern uses like 'if' and 'such as' grew from this comparative meaning.
此 — foot 止 + spoon/person 匕
此 originally depicted a person (匕) standing with a foot (止), suggesting 'to stop here' or 'this place.' Over time the meaning generalized from a specific location to the demonstrative pronoun 'this.' The foot component still hints at the original sense of standing in a particular spot.
类 — rice 米 + big 大 + dog 犬
类 (traditional 類) originally combined 米 (rice/grains) with 犬 (dog), suggesting things grouped by similarity, possibly from sorting grains or comparing dogs of a kind. Over time it came to mean 'kind, type, category.' The simplified form keeps 米 over 大, dropping the dog.