極

- “to reach the limit,” “to exhaust completely,” or “to the greatest degree.”

- also used in scientific/modern contexts to denote an extremely large number (10⁴⁸ in decimal).

Phono-semantic compound:

木 (tree, wood) – semantic, indicating support, structure, framework.

亟 (urgent, frequent, rapid) – phonetic element.

Original idea: “the utmost end or limit,” like the farthest support beam or boundary.

By extension, “extreme, ultimate, utmost.”

극진 (極盡) – utmost devotion, sincerity

극한 (極限) – limit, extremity

극도 (極度) – extreme degree

지극 (至極) – utmost, supreme

남극 (南極) – South Pole

북극 (北極) – North Pole

Historically, 极 was a separate character meaning “yoke (길마),” but due to phonetic merger it was adopted as the simplified form of 極.