余
yú
#728 most
frequent character
(literary) I, me, variant of 餘|余[yu2]
Character breakdown
Source: Make Me a Hanzi.
余 yú is a drawing of a thorny tree, its first meaning. Very early it was borrowed for its sound to mean 'I, me'. 'To have a surplus' was also a sound loan, with no link to the shape, and 'leftover' grew from that.
Drawn as: a tree with thorns
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