解く
とく · toku · JLPT N3 · verb-godan
answer
🪢🔓 解 = 角 horn + 刀 knife + 牛 cow: cut the ox apart. toku = took it apart
The kanji 解 started as carving up an ox: a knife separating the horn from the cow. Taking something apart this way gives all three meanings: untie a knot, break a problem into pieces, and solve it. Toku sounds like took, as in took it apart.
解 — horn 角 + knife 刀 + ox 牛
解 is an ideograph showing hands using a knife (刀) to separate the horn (角) from an ox (牛). The original meaning was to butcher or dismember an ox, which broadened to 'untie, separate, loosen,' and then extended figuratively to 'explain' or 'understand'—to take something apart mentally.
ほどく · hodoku · JLPT N2 · verb-godan
to unfasten
🪢 解 means untie; the native reading ほどく fits knots, hair, and stitches.
Untying a knotted shoelace is ほどく. The same kanji 解 also reads かい and means solve or dissolve, so context picks the meaning.
解 — horn 角 + knife 刀 + ox 牛
解 is an ideograph showing hands using a knife (刀) to separate the horn (角) from an ox (牛). The original meaning was to butcher or dismember an ox, which broadened to 'untie, separate, loosen,' and then extended figuratively to 'explain' or 'understand'—to take something apart mentally.