Chinese character 客

Guest or visitor: the person received by a host. In Chinese, 客 can also name someone travelling or being served as a customer.

Forms of 客 for guests appear in Western Zhou bronze inscriptions; some bronze texts also use it for “arrive.” The graph combines 宀, a roof or house, with 各, which traditional analysis treats as the sound component. Some analyses also connect 各 with arriving from outside.

A Japanese historical dictionary records an interpretation of 客 as a guest deity welcomed in Western Zhou rites. It is one account of the character’s ritual setting, not proof that a single ceremony created it.

Why does 客 mean customer?

A customer is someone a business receives and serves. That host-and-guest relation helps explain 顧客 / 顾客, which names the customer being served. 旅客 is a traveller; 乘客 is a passenger.

Read the whole compound before choosing an English equivalent. 客觀 / 客观 means “objective” in Chinese: it describes a standpoint independent of personal feelings, not a visitor.

How is 客 read in Japanese and Korean?

Mandarin Pinyin kè; Japanese kyaku or kaku; Korean gaek (객).

Japanese uses kyaku or kaku for a guest, customer, or traveller, depending on the word. Korean uses 客-derived compounds for tourists, visitors, audience members, and passengers.

객 is written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet; it spells the Korean reading of 客 rather than an alternate form of this Chinese character.