私

A phono-semantic compound:

禾 (“grain, rice plant”) — semantic element, suggesting property or resources.

厶 (sa / sī, “private, personal”) — phonetic element, also carrying semantic nuance of secrecy.

Original meaning: personal property (esp. grain, resources) belonging to a family/individual rather than the community.

Later generalized to “private, personal, selfish.”

私事 (사사) — private affairs

私有 (사유) — private ownership

私立 (사립) — privately established (e.g., school)

私心 (사심) — selfishness, personal motive

私通 (사통) — illicit relationship, secret dealings

公私 (공사) — public and private matters

In Classical Chinese, 私 is often contrasted with 公 in moral philosophy: 公 = fairness, impartiality; 私 = selfishness, bias.

In East Asian political thought, “公而忘私” (“be public-minded and forget the private”) was a Confucian ideal of governance.

In Japanese, 私 as a first-person pronoun became extremely common in modern usage, reflecting a cultural preference for modest, polite self-reference.