叟

sǒu
#3,795 most
frequent character
old gentleman, old man

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

叟 was drawn as a hand 又 with a torch in a building. It first meant searching indoors with a torch. The modern sense old man was borrowed for its sound.

Drawn as: hand holding torch; torch inside building

叟 as a component in other characters

picture3 characters

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