Sinograph Addenda · Signs

also

Name	also
Reads	yì
Means	also, likewise — the classical 'too'
Taught in	09 · The master's opening

Where it comes from

A person — your 大 shape — with two small marks under the arms: “armpits,” by the received account, borrowed whole for “also, likewise.” Rank 61, and one half of the canon’s warmest formula, 不亦…乎. Taught in the master’s-opening chapter.

How to remember it

Everyone has two of them, one on each side: also. The armpit character says “likewise” — anatomy retired into grammar.

In the wild

不亦樂乎？bù yì lè hū"is that not a joy?" — 亦 in the phrase that has meant "what could be better" for two thousand years

Analects 1.1. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1h0004:001:1a · license: attribution.