折

Ideogrammic compound (later Phono-semantic reinterpretation):

Oracle bone script (甲骨文): drawn as a tree 木 chopped into pieces by an axe 斤, showing “to chop, break.”

Bronze script (金文): preserved the same imagery.

Over time, the broken 木 graphically shifted into a shape resembling 艸, later merging with 手 (hand) to yield the modern form.

Thus, originally a pictograph of chopping wood, later reinterpreted as 手 (“hand”) + 斤 (“axe”) - “to cut, break, snap.”

折半 (절반) — halve, divide in half

折磨 (절마) — to torment, torture

折合 (절합) — to amount to, to total

折扣 (절구) — discount, reduction

骨折 (골절) — bone fracture

In Modern Chinese, 折 has multiple readings:

zhé — “to break, snap, discount, lose” (most common)

shé — “to snap, fracture” (esp. bones/branches)

zhē — rare, in certain dialects/terms.

In Korean and Japanese, primarily read as 절 / setsu.

In Simplified Chinese, also used as the simplification of 摺 (“to fold”).