只
only / merely / just / but
只
=
八
+
口
:
Mnemonic symbol: this character looks like something (a head?) on two legs. I'll just represent it by a cuttlefish (只). James II of England (zh) has been in the space station (Ø3) as the only (只) one for too long and went mad. He thinks he's holding a mandarin (口), but he's just about to bite into merely (只) an eight ball (八). On the top of his head is a cuttlefish (只) he mistook for a hat.
只 character breakdown
mouth / classifier for things with mouths (people, domestic animals, cannons, wells etc) / classifier for bites or mouthfuls
Mnemonic symbol: 口 shall be represented by a mandarin. Karl Marx (k-) is enjoying a mandarin in the outhouse's living room (ou3).
eight; 8
Characters with 只 as component
to amass / to accumulate / to store / measured quantity (such as area of volume) / product (the result of multiplication) / to integrate (math.) / to solve (or integrate) an ordinary differential equation (math.) / old / long-standing
Words with 只
unable to see the wood for the trees / fig. only able to see isolated details, and not the bigger picture
lit. it is not an official to be feared, but a person in direct control over sb (proverb) / fig. to be obliged to comply with people in authority
see 天下無難事，只怕有心人|天下无难事，只怕有心人[tian1 xia4 wu2 nan2 shi4 , zhi3 pa4 you3 xin1 ren2]
lit. don't worry about not knowing goods, but about comparing them (proverb) / fig. goods' (or person's) true value can only be determined through comparison
can be understood, but not described (idiom, from Zhuangzi 莊子|庄子[Zhuang1 zi3]); mysterious and subtle
all we need is an east wind (idiom); lacking only one tiny crucial item