Radical 木

5 strokes

Originally this meant “root” of a tree, then “source” or “basis”, hence “book”. It can be used to mean “this”, and is the measure word for books. This is a good illustration of the way in which characters can come to mean various things down the years.

本子 (17) běnzi notebook

[本来 (65) běnlái originally, at first]

[本地 (54) běndì local]

[日本 (6) Rìběn Japan]

/ The source of the wheel (i.e. where it was made) was written round its edge, so Teddy looked to see where his bun was made!