別

Formed as a compound ideograph:

冎 (skeleton, bones with flesh) — depicts joints of bones, associated with dividing or separating flesh.

刂 (knife radical) — provides the sense of cutting.

Originally meant “to cut flesh from bone with a knife”, from which the senses of “to separate,” “to divide,” and “to distinguish” developed.

In Seal Script (𠛰) the form clearly shows 冎 with 刀.

In later Clerical Script, 冎 simplified to 𠮠, producing the modern form 別.

The simplified Chinese form 别 replaces 冎 with 力 (strength), but this is a later graphic convention rather than the historical root.

Semantic range:

- to separate, part ways, leave (헤어지다, 떠나다);

- to distinguish, differentiate (구별하다, 분리하다);

- to differ, be distinct (다르다);

- by extension: “do not” (in prohibitive expressions in Chinese, e.g. 别走 “don’t leave”).

별거 (別居) — separation, living apart (esp. of spouses)

별도 (別途) — a separate way, independently

차별 (差別) — discrimination, distinction

구별 (區別) — distinction, differentiation

별명 (別名) — nickname, alias

별세 (別世) — to pass away (lit. “leave this world”)

In Classical Chinese prose, 別 is often used in the sense of “to distinguish, to classify”, especially in philosophical texts concerned with discrimination of categories (분별).

In Confucian and Buddhist contexts, “분별(分別)” can mean both right discernment (wisdom to tell good from bad) and, paradoxically, illusory attachment to distinctions (in Buddhism, “false discrimination” that hinders enlightenment).

Thus 別 sits at the crossroads of two important cultural ideas: the practical need to separate and classify, and the spiritual aspiration to transcend such separations.