厘

釐

Li2

#2,257 most

frequent character

Li (c. 2000 BC), sixth of the legendary Flame Emperors 炎帝[Yan2 di4] descended from Shennong 神農|神农[Shen2 nong2] Farmer God, also known as Ai 哀[Ai1]

Character breakdown

Source: Make Me a Hanzi.

厘 lí joins 里 lǐ, which is close in sound, with 厂, an empty part that was once an abbreviation of 𠩺, a hand holding a harvest tool. The first sense was 'to harvest grain.' The units of length and area were borrowed for their sound, while 'fraction' grew from the length unit.

Drawn as: hand holding harvest tool