泊

Also “to lodge” or “to settle temporarily,” extended figuratively to “stop or stay.”

When used with bodies of water (e.g., lakes), it may denote “a calm stretch of water.”

Phono-semantic compound consisting of:

水 (물 수) — semantic component, indicating water or fluid movement.

白 (흰 백) — phonetic component, giving the sound bó / bak and connoting brightness or stillness.

In Shuowen Jiezi (《說文解字》), Xu Shen defines:

「泊，止船也。从水白聲。」

“泊 means to halt a boat; composed of 水 and the sound 白.”

The earliest bronze and seal script forms show water on the left and a simplified white mark on the right, symbolizing a vessel resting on calm water.

泊 (박) — to anchor; to stay

停泊 (정박) — to anchor; to be moored

投泊 (투박) — to approach shore; to dock

宿泊 (숙박) — to lodge; to stay overnight

靠泊 (고박) — to berth (a ship); to fasten at port

泊船 (박선) — moored boat

泊岸 (박안) — to reach shore; to come alongside

湖泊 (호박) — lake (collective term in Chinese; e.g., 湖泊群 “group of lakes”)

In idiomatic and modern expressions:

정박하다 — to anchor or dock a vessel.

숙박(宿泊) — to stay overnight (broader lodging sense, extended metaphorically).

When used as pō in Chinese toponymy, 泊 appears in lake names (e.g., 白洋泊 Báiyángpō), where it signifies a body of still or shallow water.

The Kangxi Dictionary (康熙字典) records:

「泊，止也，亦曰泊然，安靜之貌。」

“泊 means to stop, also calm and still in appearance.”

Hence, beyond its nautical meaning, 泊 also conveys tranquility, clarity, and composure, as in literary phrases such as 泊然無欲 — “calm and without desire.”

In philosophical writings, this connotation of stillness was extended metaphorically to describe inner serenity.

The Zhuangzi (莊子·外物) uses the phrase:

「心若止水而泊然。」

“The heart, like still water, rests in calmness.”

In Japanese and Sino-Korean expressions, 泊 appears in temporal compounds like 一泊二日 (“one night, two days”), an idiom originally Japanese but now widely borrowed into Korean; Chinese instead uses 兩天一晚 or 兩天一夜.

Thus, 泊 encapsulates both the physical act of mooring and the metaphoric ideal of rest — a brief stillness amid movement, the calm pause between journeys.