The story of 止

stop, prohibit

止 depicts the human toes. When we are walking, toes are always the most frontal parts, once our toes have touched something(for example, a wall), we know that we have reached the end of our route, so 止 bears the meaning of end or termination. However, now we use 趾 in stead of 止 to represent the meaning of toes.

Vocabulary of 止

  • 停止 (stop)
  • 終止 (terminate)

Classification

Related Characters: