釜

especially an iron cauldron or cauldron-shaped cooking vessel

Phono-semantic compound:

金 (쇠 금, “metal”) — semantic, indicating a vessel made of metal.

父 (아비 부, “father”) — phonetic, providing the sound.

Graphically, the 人 components overlap, with the upper part of 金 omitted, producing the unique contracted form.

Related form:

鬴 (U+9B34) — recorded in the Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字). Formed from 鬲 (솥 력, cauldron, cooking vessel) + 甫 (클 보), also meaning “cauldron.”

The character often conveys connotations of cooking, boiling, or heating. In Korea, 釜 is very familiar due to its use in the toponym Busan (釜山).

釜山 (부산) — Busan, Korea’s second-largest city (“cauldron mountain”)

大釜 (대부) — large cauldron

The form 鬴 is older and etymologically clearer but has fallen out of common use.

Idioms & expressions:

釜中之魚 (부중지어, “fish in a cauldron”) — someone in extreme danger, with no escape possible.

釜中游魚 (부중유어, “fish swimming in a cauldron”) — to live in constant peril, despite seeming calm.

釜中生魚 (부중생어, “fish living in a cauldron”) — an idiom for a hopeless situation.

釜底抽薪 (부저추신, “remove the firewood from under the cauldron”) — to solve a problem at its root; cut off the source.

同釜之食 (동부지식, “eating from the same cauldron”) — to share life closely; communal living or unity.