About
The character "柜" originally represented a specific type of tree, the sandalwood, as seen in its structure which combines the wood radical (木) with the phonetic component "巨". Over time, this meaning became largely obsolete as the character was borrowed to signify a piece of furniture for storage. This semantic shift was a borrowing from the traditional and more complex form "櫃", which itself clearly depicts a wooden (木) container for valuable items (貴), thus more directly conveying the idea of a cabinet or cupboard. The adoption of the simpler "柜" for this meaning represents a longstanding orthographic streamlining where a character with a related semantic field and a convenient phonetic clue was repurposed, allowing it to evolve from denoting a material to designating a common functional object made from that material.
Example Sentences Hide
这个柜子很漂亮。
衣柜里有很多衣服。
书柜放在书房里。
请把文件放进文件柜。
柜台后面站着一位服务员。
橱柜的门需要修理一下。
保险柜的密码只有他知道。
那个古董柜是从欧洲进口的。