兆 zhào omen
omen; mega-
How it came to be
The crack in a heated turtle shell, splitting to both sides of the line. Fortune tellers read in it what was coming, so the crack itself became the word for an omen.
How it is used
- An omen/sign of what's coming - 预兆 (yùzhào) omen, 征兆 (zhēngzhào) a sign/symptom, 好兆头 (hǎo zhàotou) a good omen.
- Also the number word for 'a trillion' (10^12) and the SI prefix mega- - 兆瓦 (zhàowǎ) megawatt, 兆字节 megabyte.
- Two unrelated jobs - portent vs. large-number/mega prefix - set apart by context.