Definitions
hoe
Etymology
About
The character 耡 is a verb meaning to hoe or cultivate the land, historically a variant of 鋤. It is a phono-semantic compound: the semantic radical 耒 depicts an ancient wooden plow, indicating its agricultural meaning, while the phonetic component 助 (to help) provides the pronunciation 'chú'. It originally described the physical work of clearing weeds and turning soil for planting. Over time, the variant with the metal radical became standard, but 耡 retains the core meaning of working the earth with a tool.
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