Sinograph Addenda · Signs

來come · lái · to come; coming, next

come

Where it comes from

A wheat plant, head heavy and ears drooping — the old word for wheat itself. “Come” borrowed the graph — the oldest story says because the grain CAME, a gift from heaven — and kept it; wheat had to grow a new character of its own. Taught in the verb-and-object chapter.

How to remember it

A grain plant: 木tree · mù · tree; wood with two drooping ears (the two small 人person · rén · a human being; other people). The wheat that came as heaven’s gift lent its picture to come — and never went home.

In the wild