Sinograph Addenda · Signs

若as-if · ruò · to be like; if

as-if

Where it comes from

The oldest forms draw a kneeling figure with both hands smoothing long, loose hair — an image of yielding and going along with. From “accord with” the word softened into “to be like,” and at the head of a clause, “if.” The received graph re-dressed the figure as plants over a hand. Taught in the like-and-alike chapter.

How to remember it

Under the plant-strokes, a hand and a mouth 口mouth · kǒu · mouth; an opening: the hand smooths everything to lie one way, the mouth says “just so” — as-if.

In the wild