者

Alternative forms

 * In Korean hanja and occasionally in Japanese, an additional stroke is written at the bottom right corner of  above, which is the historical form found in the . In other regions, the additional  stroke has been omitted.
 * Three exist for this character:
 * : Alternative form used in North Korea without additional stroke below.
 * : Japanese kyūjitai with additional stroke below.
 * : Variant traditional form used in Taiwan with additional stroke below.

Glyph origin
– a sugarcane with full leaves and stems, with a mouth under, the original character for either or. Phonetically loaned for abstract meanings.

Top component is unrelated to  and.

The variant form with an additional stroke below  is influenced by , which considered  as the bottom component of.

Etymology
Etymologically related to and perhaps colloquial.
 * one who, -er, nominalizing suffix

Definitions

 * 1)  this
 * 2)  -er; -ist; one who ...; person involved in; the things which ...
 * : Zhe
 * 1)  this
 * 2)  -er; -ist; one who ...; person involved in; the things which ...
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe
 * : Zhe

Etymology 1
→

From. First attested in the  of 720. Theorized to derive from.

Cognate with.

In ancient texts marked with pronunciation information, this character was always read as hito until around the late 800s, at which point the mono reading becomes prevalent. The mono reading has historically often been used with mild pejorative overtones, as compared to the more neutral term. This may suggest a broadening of the original “thing” sense for mono, which then was applied as a pejorative for a “person”.

Noun

 * 1) person

Etymology 2
From.

Suffix

 * 1) someone of that type, someone who does that