族

Associative compound:

㫃 (to wave, to gather, movement) – indicates assembling, rallying;

矢 (arrow) – semantic, representing direction, aim, or force.

Together, the components suggest “people gathered under a common aim or banner,” hence “clan, tribe, people.”

Semantic range:

- clan, lineage, extended family;

- tribe, ethnic group, people;

- nation, race, collective identity;

- by extension: category, class, group (e.g., chemical groups, biological taxa).

In modern contexts, 族 extends beyond blood kinship to describe collectives of people sharing identity, culture, or traits (e.g., 세대族 “generation group”).

Still retains its core sense of “those bound together” whether by kinship, culture, or classification.

民族 (민족) – nation, people, ethnicity

氏族 (씨족) – clan, lineage group

家族 (가족) – family

部族 (부족) – tribe

族譜 (족보) – genealogical record, family register

The character sometimes also has the rare reading 주 (“tune, style”), but this usage is extremely uncommon.