兔 tù rabbit
rabbit; hare
How it came to be
A rabbit from the side, long ears laid back on top, the body, and the short tail a dot at the bottom right. Without that dot it is the avoid block, a different word.
How it is used
- Bound noun root; in everyday speech it almost always takes the suffix 子: 兔子 tùzi "rabbit".
- Names the zodiac year: 兔年 tùnián "Year of the Rabbit".
- Survives alone in the idiom 守株待兔 shǒuzhū dàitù - "guard a tree stump waiting for a rabbit", meaning to wait passively for a lucky break instead of acting.