個

The character 個 is a phono-semantic compound. It consists of the semantic component 亻 (“person”) and the phonetic component 固 (OC *kaːs). The component 固 is itself composed of the semantic element 囗 (“box, enclosure”) and the phonetic element 古 (“the past; ancient times”).

Its meaning includes single, alone, individual, or a unit for counting people or things lacking specific classifiers. It can also refer to height, build, or stature. The semantics may have developed through a grammaticalization process from 箇 (“bamboo stalk”) to “piece, item,” eventually becoming a generic classifier or possessive particle. If this is the case, it is possibly cognate with 竿 (OC *kaːn, “bamboo, rod”), Tibetan མཁར་བ, and Thai ก้าน (“stem, stalk”).

In Southern Min and Wu, the character functions as both a classifier and a possessive particle. The earliest attested scripts for this character are seal and regular scripts.