Sinograph Addenda · Signs

分divide · fēn · to divide; a part, a share

divide

Where it comes from

八eight · bā · eight; (original sense) to divide began life meaning “apart” — two strokes leaning away from each other — before the number eight borrowed it. Set the knife 刀knife · dāo · knife, blade beneath and the splitting has its tool: 分divide · fēn · to divide; a part, a share, to divide; also the share that division hands you. Taught in the if-and-then chapter.

How to remember it

Apart, by knife: divide.

In the wild