Sinograph Addenda · Signs

ground

Name	ground
Reads	dì
Means	earth, ground
Taught in	15 · And so

Where it comes from

The soil-sign 土 does the meaning; 也 lends an old pronunciation. Together: the ground underfoot, and the lower half of the oldest pair in the language — 天地, heaven-and-earth, classical for the world entire. Taught in the and-so chapter.

How to remember it

Earth 土 on the left says what it is; 也 on the right is only there for the sound. The ground — the lower half of heaven-and-earth.

In the wild

無名、天地之始。wú míng, tiān dì zhī shǐ"the nameless — the beginning of heaven and earth" — before anything had a name, says the Laozi's first page, the world already was; names came second.

Laozi 1. urn:nabu:kanripo:KR5c0057:001:1a · license: attribution.