About
The character 范, whose traditional form is 範, originally derived from a specific concrete object before expanding into abstract and widespread usage. Its traditional structure combines the bamboo radical (竹) with the component for cart (車), pointing to its initial meaning as a bamboo mold or form used in the casting of metal cart wheels. This core idea of a pattern or mold facilitated a natural semantic extension to encompass standards, models, and examples to be followed. Over time, the character's application broadened further to denote limits or bounds, as seen in words meaning scope or domain. The simplified form 范 replaced the original bamboo radical with a grass radical (艹), a change based on phonetic borrowing from a semantically distinct but homophonous character meaning a type of plant, yet it retained all the abstract meanings related to models and limits established by its traditional predecessor.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
这个范围很大。
我们要规范自己的行为。
老师给我们做了示范。
他是我们学习的典范。
这篇作文是一篇范文。
他的举止很有范儿。
模范人物起着带头作用。
这项研究引发了范式转移。