得る
える · eru · JLPT N3 · suffix
to win
🏆 eru sounds like earn: what you earn, you get
Kanji 得 = 彳 (going, road) + a hand (寸) reaching for 旦, which was once 貝 (shell money). Picking up money on the road is how you get, gain or win something. Example: 知識を得る, to gain knowledge.
得 — 彳 (step) + 旦 (sun/day) + 寸 (hand)
Originally depicted a hand 寸 reaching for a cowrie shell 貝 (later simplified to 旦), with 彳 'step' added to show going out and obtaining something. The core meaning is 'to get' or 'obtain'. The reading děi extends this to 'must/have to' — what one is obliged to get done.
うる · uru · JLPT N3 · suffix
to get; to gain; to win
🏆 uru ≈ EUReka, the cry of someone who just got what they were after
得 = 彳 (go) + a hand grabbing a shell, the old form of money: you go out and come back with a gain. うる is the literary reading of 得る; in everyday speech it is usually える, as in あり得る (it can happen).
得 — 彳 (step) + 旦 (sun/day) + 寸 (hand)
Originally depicted a hand 寸 reaching for a cowrie shell 貝 (later simplified to 旦), with 彳 'step' added to show going out and obtaining something. The core meaning is 'to get' or 'obtain'. The reading děi extends this to 'must/have to' — what one is obliged to get done.