舍

Pictophonetic / compound character:

The graph shows a house or building structure with 人 (person) inside, representing “a place where one lives or stays.”

By extension, it came to mean lodging, inn, or temporary shelter.

Later, the sense of discarding / giving up developed in the derived form 捨 (“to discard, to abandon”), emphasizing “leaving a dwelling.”

宿舍 (숙사) — dormitory, lodging

舍屋 (사옥) — building, house

舍利 (사리) — Buddhist relics

田舍 (전사) — countryside house, rustic dwelling

舍生取義 (사생취의) — “sacrifice life to uphold righteousness”

In Buddhism, 舍利 (śarīra) refers to relics of the Buddha or saints, highly venerated in Buddhist tradition.

The nuance of 舍 = to give up, abandon in 捨 also informs religious and philosophical concepts of renunciation (舍身, “to give up the body”).