Sinograph Addenda · Signs

knife

Name	knife
Reads	dāo
Means	knife, blade
Taught in	10 · If and then

Where it comes from

A blade with its curved handle, cut to two strokes — one of the script’s plainest pictures. On the right side of a compound it slims to 刂, the same knife drawn thin; cutting, dividing, and judging words carry it. Taught in the if-and-then chapter.

How to remember it

Two strokes, one edge: knife.

In the wild

曾不容刀。céng bù róng dāo"it wouldn't even float a knife of a boat" — a homesick poet insisting the river home is no barrier at all: too narrow, he claims, for even a knife-thin skiff. The commentators enjoy the loan — 刀 here names a slender boat.

Odes, "Who says the river is wide?" (河廣). urn:nabu:kanripo:KR1c0001:005:44a · license: attribution.