個
- individual, single unit;
Commonly used as a measure word (classifier) in Chinese, for counting people and many objects like “piece,” “unit,” or “item”.
Etymology
Components:
人 (person) – semantic component, indicating “human” or “individual.”
固 (solid, firm) – phonetic component, lending the sound gè / 개.
Thus, 個 originally meant “a single person” and later generalized to “a single unit of anything.”
