Sinograph Addenda · Signs

有have · yǒu · to have, there is

have

Where it comes from

The hand 又again · yòu · again, further; the old drawing of the right hand holding meat — the meat-shape came to be written like the moon 月moon · yuè · the moon; a month, and the merged form stuck. Rank nine of the corpus: “to have,” and the classical “there is.” Taught in the busiest-words chapter.

How to remember it

What the hand holds, you have. Hand above, meat below — possession drawn in six strokes.

In the wild