活字
かつじ · katsuji · JLPT N2 · noun
type
🖨️ 活 (alive, movable) + 字 (character) = movable characters you can reuse
Each character was a separate piece that could be removed and reused for new pages. 活 means alive or movable, and 字 means character or letter.
活 — water radical 氵 + tongue 舌
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 氵 (water) suggests flowing or liveliness, while 舌 (tongue) hints at the sound. Early forms depicted gushing water, conveying the idea of being lively or alive. The meaning broadened from 'flowing water' to 'living, alive, active.'
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.