伺

Its meaning depends on the language and the compound.

In Chinese, 伺 (sì; cì in 伺候) can mean watch for, wait for, or attend to someone. 伺机 means waiting for an opportunity; 窥伺 means watching or probing covertly; 伺候 means attending to or serving someone.

In Japanese, 伺 is most familiar in 伺う (ukagau), a humble verb for asking, hearing, or visiting. A bare 伺 does not settle which language or meaning is intended.

What does 伺う mean in Japanese?

It humbly describes your side asking, hearing, or visiting.

Japanese 伺う (ukagau) is humble language that lowers the speaker's or their group's action toward a respected person. 先生のところに伺います means “I'll visit my teacher”; ご意見を伺う means “ask for your opinion.”

Use 伺う for your own side's action, not a superior's action: the humility points from the speaker toward the recipient.

Where did 伺 come from?

Its written form combines 人, “person,” with 司.

A 2024 Taiwan dictionary entry marks 伺 as absent from the original 說文解字, an old Chinese character dictionary, and records it among added characters with the gloss 候望, “watching or waiting.” 司 is the sound-bearing element in the written form.

That watching-and-waiting sense fits several Chinese compounds. Japanese 伺う and 窺う share a historical root, but 窺う means peeking, observing, or probing; 伺う is the humble verb for asking, hearing, or visiting.