索

A compound ideograph:

糸 (fine thread) — semantic component

冖 (cover)

十 (crossing / binding element)

The character depicts fibers being gathered and twisted together, representing the act of making a rope.

The earliest meaning of 索 was “twisted cord” or “straw rope.”

Thus, the abstract meaning “to seek” metaphorically derives from following a cord or line:

rope → pulling along a line → seeking or tracing something out → to demand or exact;

탐색 (探索) — exploration; investigation

수색 (搜索) — search; manhunt

요구하다 / 청구하다 (索求) — to demand; to exact

동아줄 (索) — rope; cord

황량하다 (索然) — desolate; bleak; lacking interest

Sino-Korean readings and phonology:

삭 (sak) — rope, cord

색 (saek) — to search

The ‘rope’ sense (삭) survives mostly in:

- classical texts

- literary or explanatory contexts

The ‘search’ sense (색) is highly productive:

탐색 (explore), 수색 (search), 검색 (find), 색출 (find out)

Related characters:

繩 — rope

綱 — thick rope / main principle (metaphorical extension)

搜 — to search (action-focused)

求 — to seek (goal-focused)

探 — to explore (exploratory nuance)

索 uniquely bridges physical action (twisting rope) and abstract cognition (seeking information).

The sense “desolate, barren” (索然) likely derives from imagery of emptiness after something has been pulled away.

Korean preserves the semantic split in pronunciation, while Chinese and Japanese do not.