断える
たえる · taeru · JLPT N1 · verb-ichidan
to cease
🦤 断 = cut off; 断える = cut off until it ends for good
The kanji 断 means sever or cut. A connection that is cut off stops, so 断える means to cease or die out. The more common spelling is 絶える, which carries the same sense of ending.
断 — thread 㡭 (silk bundle) + axe 斤
Originally written with 㡭 (entangled silk threads) on the left and 斤 (axe) on the right, depicting an axe cutting through bundled threads. From this concrete image of severing came the meanings 'to cut off,' 'to break,' and by extension 'to decide' or 'judge'—as in resolving a matter decisively.