令

(as noun) command, decree

(as honorific) polite prefix for others’ family members (e.g. 令尊 “your esteemed father”)

(rare) good, beautiful (seen in Japanese era name Reiwa 令和)

Ideogrammic compound:

亼 (jí, ‘to gather’) or interpreted as a roof, inverted 口 (mouth), or bell — representing a covering place / sound of announcement.

卩 (jié, ‘kneeling person, seal’) — denotes a subject kneeling in obedience.

Together, depicts “under a roof or by proclamation, a kneeling person receiving an order,” hence “to command, to cause.”

Graphical evolution:

Oracle bone / Bronze script (甲骨文·金文): figure of a person kneeling with something over them (commanding situation).

Seal script (篆書): stylized into current recognizable form.

Modern form: 人-like top element with 卩 below. Handwritten often uses a dot under 人 and writes 卩 as マ, which is the printed standard in mainland China.

命令 (명령) — order, command

令狐 (영호, Línghú) — surname

使令 (사령) — to order, to instruct

法令 (법령) — law; statute

指令 (지령) — directive; instruction

發令 (발령) — issuance of an order

禁令 (금령) — prohibition; ban

令하다 (령하다) — to command (literary)

In classical and Sino-based vocabulary, 令 may express respect:

令尊 / 令堂 (영존비속) — your honored father / mother

令尊 (영존) — your honored father (honorific)

令愛 (영애) — your daughter (honorific)

In these cases, 令 conveys “worthy, honored, proper” rather than command.

Semantic relatives:

命 — order; fate

使 — to make; to send

教 — to instruct

令 — to command; to cause

禁 — to prohibit

令 is strongly associated with:

- governance

- hierarchy

- authority

In modern Korean, direct use of 令 as a verb is rare, but it remains central in legal, administrative, and formal vocabulary.

Its honorific sense survives mainly in Sino-classical expressions.

令 (U+F9A8) — exists only to preserve exact glyph shapes from older systems

Modern text should always use 令 (U+4EE4).