来

lái
come, arrive

Origin of the Chinese Character

“来”原本是一个象形字，甲骨文像麦子的形状。“来”最初的意思就是小麦。造字之初并没有用来表示“come；arrive”意义的字形，古人把表示小麦的“来”的字形借过来表示“come；arrive”的意义。

Originally, "来 (lái)" was an ideographic character. The Chinese character "来(lái)" looks like wheat on oracle bone inscriptions (jiǎ gǔ wén 甲骨文), the earliest Chinese scripts that were carved on tortoise shells or animal bones. Its original meaning was wheat, and "来(lái)" didn't bear the meaning of "come, arrive" until later Chinese ancestors gave it that meaning.