Radical 衤

7 strokes

clothes 衤 (439a) + knife 刀 (72) = beginning 初

最初 (421) zuìchū initially, initial stage

[初步 (378) chūbù initial, tentative]

The doctors cut away his clothes with a knife before beginning their examination (of the road accident victim). / The giant tries to stick the clothes together again with chewing gum!

This is the form which Character 437 takes when appearing as the left-hand side of characters. Compare this carefully with “sign” 礻 (433a), which is very similar but has one less stroke.