故事 (gù shì)

Character breakdown

• 故 (gù) · 9 strokes

  Phonosemantic compound. 攵 represents the meaning and 古 represents the sound.

• 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…