侍 means “samurai, attend on”

さむらい · samurai

Also: waiter, wait upon, serve

Kun'yomi (Japanese reading)

さむらい, はべる

On'yomi (Chinese reading)

ジ, シ

JLPT N1 · Taught in secondary school · 8 strokes

The story

A person (亻) waiting at the temple (寺): someone in attendance. The word samurai grew from an old verb, さぶらう, to wait upon a lord, and Japan's national baseball team takes the field as 侍ジャパン, Samurai Japan.

Used in 侍 (samurai, samurai warrior), 侍従 (jijuu, chamberlain), and 侍女 (jijo, lady-in-waiting)

More from Samurai & Soldiers

• 屯 be stationed
• 曹 sergeant
• 尉 junior officer
• 隷 slave
• 帥 commander-in-chief
• 佐 aide
• 士 warrior
• 隊 troop
• 塁 base (baseball)
• 陣 battle camp
• 幕 curtain
• 准 associate

Learn 侍 and more kanji free on Fuji Learning · All kanji

Readings from KANJIDIC2, © EDRDG, CC BY-SA.