The origin of 保

[floatingmoon]

Does any one know the origin of 保?how is it created?

Like for 山 I know it's because it looks like three stood up mountains.

人 of course it looks like a human.

But how about 保? Hope someone can help, thank you very much.

[monto]

养，育 ----- raise

Adult (人字旁），with a hand over a child's head meaning "to take care of".

Following pic is scanned from 《说文通训定声》by [清] 朱骏声

[Don_Horhe]

You can also check the etymology of characters on the following website:

http://www.chineseetymology.org/

[Altair]

Zhongwen.com and Wenlin imply that 亻represents a person holding a baby (子, originally with a rounder head) wrapped in blankets or swaddling clothes represented by 八. 子 surrounded by 八 ended up looking like 呆. Wenlin also quotes Lindqvist as saying: "On the oracle bones and bronzes, in some cases we see the child safe in the adult's arms, and other times the child is carried on a back, just as children are carried in China today." In the later case, the image seems to be lacking the 八 element, and the 子 part is joined directly to the bent back on the right side of curved 亻 element.

[floatingmoon]

Thank you all, and thank you very much Altair.

I know the 亻is mean person. But I wasn't able to figure it out the 呆.

My friend was making a joke:

幫人做保很危險，所以人呆才會為人擔「保」.

Which started me to trying to figure it out the "real" origin of 保.

The joke is not the real explanation, but I am amaze by the creative ways to explain the joke, haha.