釘

A phono-semantic compound:

金 — metal, iron (semantic component)

丁 — jeong (phonetic component)

Originally, 丁 itself depicted the shape of a nail or spike in oracle-bone script.

As 丁 expanded semantically (4th Heavenly Stem, adult male, abstract meanings), the concrete sense “nail” specialized into 釘 by adding the metal radical.

In East Asian carpentry, nails were historically:

- handmade

- valuable

- reused

Traditional Korean architecture often used joinery, minimizing nails — which made 釘 symbolically associated with Western or later construction methods.

Related characters:

丁 — spike; adult male; 4th Heavenly Stem

針 — needle

錨 — anchor