預

The semantic focus differs among countries:

Korea / Japan: the central meaning is “to entrust / to deposit”

China: the central meaning is “in advance / beforehand” (e.g., 预先, 预备)

Phono-semantic compound:

預 = 頁 (semantic) + 予 (phonetic)

頁 originally meant “head” but in this family of characters later extended to meanings like “thinking ahead, preparing.”

予 originally meant “to give”, later extending to “to give beforehand → to prepare”.

Thus 預 developed meanings such as:

“to do beforehand → to prepare → to deposit/entrust.”

Primary meaning “to entrust / deposit”:

예금 (預金) — bank deposit

예탁 (預託) — to entrust

예납 (預納) — to pay in advance (deposit)

“In advance” meaning survives in some words:

예언 (預言) — prophecy (“to say beforehand”)

예정 (預定) — pre-arrangement

In modern Korean, meanings were separated:

豫 — “in advance”

預 — “to entrust / deposit”

This division was strongly influenced by Japanese usage.

Relationship with 豫:

豫 — “in advance; pleased”

預 — originally an interchangeable graph for 豫

Later they split in meaning:

China: 预 ≈ 豫 (“in advance”, almost merged)

Korea / Japan:

豫 ≈ ‘in advance’

預 ≈ ‘to entrust’

Historical Korean usage:

In older Korean texts (e.g., Annals of the Joseon Dynasty),

預 was very often used with the meaning “in advance”.

Only in the modern era were 豫 and 預 separated, influenced by Japanese usage.

Classical citations:

《書經·盤庚上》 (Book of Documents)

「若涉大水，予惟求其避。」

“If crossing great waters, I only seek beforehand how to avoid danger.”

預/豫 used interchangeably for “in advance”.

《左傳·昭公四年》 (Zuo Commentary)

「凡事預則立，不預則廢。」

“All things succeed if prepared beforehand; without preparation they fail.”

The well-known maxim 預則立 (“Preparation leads to success”).

《史記·平準書》 (Records of the Grand Historian)

「民多預買，以爲貴。」

“People often bought in advance, thinking the price would rise.”

Used with the meaning “to buy beforehand”.