州

  • island in a river, sandbank;
  • settlement, district;
  • province, prefecture;

Etymology

A pictograph:

Depicts flowing streams (巛) with a central island or sandbank.

Originally meant river islet / midstream sandbank.

Over time, broadened to mean settlement, then in the Spring and Autumn period used for regional military outposts, and by the Han dynasty formalized as an administrative unit (province).

The sense “river islet” was later specialized into 洲 (with 水 radical).

Usage in Korean

州 (주) — prefecture, province

九州 (구주) — “Nine Provinces,” ancient China

廣州 (광주) — Guangzhou (Canton)

加州 (가주) — California (abbreviated form)

州府 (주부) — prefectural capital

Words that derived from 州

州
고을
주
go'eul
ju
Kangxi radical:47, 巛 + 3
Strokes:6
Unicode:U+5DDE
Cangjie input:
  • 戈中戈中 (ILIL)
Composition:
  • ⿻⿲ 丿 丶 丶 川 (G J K V)
  • ⿻⿲ 丶 丶丶 川 (H T)

Neighboring characters in the dictionary

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