必

Originally a pictograph: depicts a woven thread pierced through by a needle, symbolizing something bound together tightly, inescapable, inevitable.

Later reinterpreted as a phono-semantic compound, with the central element resembling a needle or sharp point, emphasizing “certainty” and “must.”

Semantic range:

- certainty, inevitability, necessity;

- obligation, compulsion (“must, shall”);

- figurative: strong determination, assurance.

필수 (必需/必修) – essential, indispensable / required (course)

필연 (必然) – inevitability, necessity

필경 (畢竟) – after all, in the end

필승 (必勝) – certain victory

필사 (必死) – desperate (lit. “certain death”)