兔 tù rabbit
rabbit; hare
How it came to be
象形 · Pictogram
A drawing of the thing it means.
The oldest form is a drawing of a rabbit, sitting with its tail behind it.
用法
- Bound noun root; in everyday speech it almost always takes the suffix 子: 兔子 tùzi "rabbit".
- Names the zodiac year: 兔年 tùnián "Year of the Rabbit".
- Survives alone in the idiom 守株待兔 shǒuzhū dàitù: "guard a tree stump waiting for a rabbit", meaning to wait passively for a lucky break instead of acting.