站 zhàn — to stand, to be on one’s feet; a station, a stop; a post, a station-house
zhàn (fourth tone, falling)
to stand, to be on one’s feet; a station, a stop; a post, a station-house
10 strokesRadical 立Frequency #361
Pinyin
- zhàn (fourth tone, falling)
to stand, to be on one’s feet; a station, a stop; a post, a station-house
Character breakdown
Ideographic description
⿰立占The sequence reads left to right and describes how the parts are arranged.
- 立meaning partno entry yetTo stand: a person drawn with the ground line under the feet.
- 占sound partno entry yet占 zhàn for the sound; on its own it means to occupy a place.
Mnemonic
Standing 立 with 占 for the sound. The verb is plain enough — 站起来 stand up, 站住 halt. The second sense came later: the Yuan-dynasty relay-post system took its name from a Mongolian word, and the character was pressed into service for it. Everything that stops on a route is now a 站: 车站, 火车站, and even 网站, a website.
A memory aid written by HSK Guide editors. It is not an etymology and does not describe the historical origin of the character.