四周 (sì zhōu)

Character breakdown

• 四 (sì) · 5 strokes

  In ancient texts the character 亖 (four horizontal strokes) was used. The current form 四 depicts breathing through the nose and is the original form of 呬. The use of 四 as a number is a phonetic loan.

• 周 (Zhōu) · 8 strokes

  Depicts a carved jade object, now written as 彫/琱. The meaning later shifted to "circumference" and "cycle". Later the 口 component was added when 周 was used to refer to a geographical region to indicat…