目的

もくてき · mokuteki · JLPT N3 · noun

purpose

🎯 目的 = eye (目) + target (的): your eye on the target

目 (moku) means eye, and 的 (teki) originally meant the bullseye of an archery target. So a purpose is the target you keep your eye on. Hook: moku-teki, mark your target.

的 — white 白 + ladle 勺
Originally a phono-semantic compound: 白 ('white') gave the meaning of bright or clear, and 勺 supplied the sound. It once meant 'bright' or 'target' (still seen in 目的, 'aim'). In modern Chinese it was borrowed as a grammatical particle marking possession or modification.

More Japanese words · How Japanese works