析 xī to split wood
to analyze; to separate
How it came to be
会意 · Meaning + meaning
Two or more parts whose meanings together make the new meaning.
The oldest form shows a tree and an axe: splitting wood.
用法
- A purely bound morpheme in modern Chinese. It never appears alone, only inside 分析 fēnxī (to analyze) and the more formal 解析 jiěxī (to analyze/parse in a technical sense).
- 分析 is the everyday word you'll use constantly: 分析一下情况 fēnxī yíxià qíngkuàng, "let's analyze the situation".
- Don't try to use 析 by itself, unlike many bound characters it has essentially no other productive compounds at this level.