事物 (shì wù)

Character breakdown

• 事 (shì) · 8 strokes

  The characters 史 (history), 吏 (government official), 使 (cause; use; instruct), and 事 (matter; work; affair) are all etymologically related and all derive from the same ancient character, depicting a h…

• 物 (wù) · 8 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 牛 represents the meaning and 勿 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "variety", depicting the variety of colors on a cow. Later the meaning shifted to "things".