要

Descendants

 * 𛀓
 * 𡚩

Glyph origin

 * a woman with two hands pointing to her midsection.

Original meaning was “waist” (now ). The hands gradually shifted upwards; the in the modern form evolved from the hands and the woman's head.

Definitions

 * 1) to demand; to ask; to request
 * 2) to force; to coerce
 * 3) to promise
 * 4) to block; to intercept
 * 5)  contract of alliance
 * 1) to block; to intercept
 * 2)  contract of alliance
 * 1)  contract of alliance
 * 1)  contract of alliance
 * 1)  contract of alliance
 * 1)  contract of alliance
 * 1)  contract of alliance

Definitions

 * 1) to want; to wish
 * 2) to wish to have or keep
 * 3) to ask for
 * 4) to request
 * 5) to need
 * 6) will; going to
 * 7) should; must; to have to
 * 8) vital; important
 * 9) important points; essentials
 * 10) if; in case of
 * 1) to request
 * 2) to need
 * 3) will; going to
 * 4) should; must; to have to
 * 5) vital; important
 * 6) important points; essentials
 * 7) if; in case of
 * 1) should; must; to have to
 * 2) vital; important
 * 3) important points; essentials
 * 4) if; in case of
 * 1) vital; important
 * 2) important points; essentials
 * 3) if; in case of
 * 1) vital; important
 * 2) important points; essentials
 * 3) if; in case of
 * 1) important points; essentials
 * 2) if; in case of

Usage notes

 * Beware that is a phrase with the meaning "to be a beggar/loafer" which is insulting to others and should be avoided when asking a person whether they want rice.

Kanji

 * 1) need, necessity
 * 2) essential

Etymology 1
From.

First cited to 611.

Noun

 * 1)  key, important point
 * 2)  essential piece of something, requirement

Etymology 2


→ →

A shift from older from a superficial resemblance of the round pinhead of a folding fan to a crab's eye, influenced by a reanalysis of the term as, as the pins were increasingly made from metal instead of earlier bamboo, wood, or whalebone.

First cited to 1220.

Noun

 * 1)  a pin or rivet holding the spines of a folding fan together
 * 2)   a pivot, cornerstone, keystone
 * 3)  a pin, often decorated, holding the handle to the tang of a katana
 * 4)   a tree,
 * 5)   in a certain kind of traditional Japanese hip roof where the rafters splay out like the spines of a fan, the central point to which the rafter lines converge
 * 1)   a tree,
 * 2)   in a certain kind of traditional Japanese hip roof where the rafters splay out like the spines of a fan, the central point to which the rafter lines converge
 * 1)   in a certain kind of traditional Japanese hip roof where the rafters splay out like the spines of a fan, the central point to which the rafter lines converge
 * 1)   in a certain kind of traditional Japanese hip roof where the rafters splay out like the spines of a fan, the central point to which the rafter lines converge

Etymology 3
→

A shift from older from a superficial resemblance of the round pinhead of a folding fan to a crab's eye, influenced by a reanalysis of the term as, as the pins were increasingly made from metal instead of earlier bamboo, wood, or whalebone.

First cited to roughly 1140. This reading may be obsolete, and it is not included in some dictionaries.

Noun

 * 1)   the pin or rivet holding the spines of a folding fan together

Etymology 4
From. Further derivation.

First cited in the  of 720, listed with both readings numa and numi.

Noun

 * 1)   fortress, redoubt
 * 2)   important point, key