河

Etymology & Components

The Chinese character 河 (hé) for "river" is a pictograph that depicts a body of water with two banks. The character is composed of two parts: the radical氵(shuǐ), which indicates that the character is related to water, and the phonetic component可 (kě). The phonetic component 可 is a simplified form of the character 可 (kě), which means "can" or "may". The combination of the radical and the phonetic component suggests that the character 河 originally represented a body of water that could be crossed or navigated.Over time, the character 河 has come to be used to refer to any river, regardless of its size or location. The character is also used in a number of compound words and phrases, such as 河流 (héliú), which means "river flow", and 河马 (hémǎ), which means "hippopotamus".The character 河 is a common character in Chinese, and it is used in a wide variety of contexts. The character is also used in Japanese and Korean, where it has the same meaning as in Chinese.