物理

ぶつり · butsuri · JLPT N3 · noun

physics

🧲🍎 物理 = thing + reason: the reasons behind how things behave

物 (butsu) means thing or matter, as in 動物 (animal) and 人物 (person). 理 (ri) means reason or principle, as in 理由 (reason). Physics is the study of the principles that govern matter.

理 — jade radical 玉/王 + village 里 (phonetic)
理 is a semantic-phonetic compound: the jade radical 王 (玉) on the left signals meaning, while 里 on the right gives the sound. It originally meant the natural veins or grain in a piece of jade, then extended to 'pattern,' 'order,' 'principle,' and finally the modern senses 'reason' and 'to manage.'

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