Character 床

Chinese: bed; Japanese: bed or floor; Korean Hanja: platform or table.

Chinese 床 usually means “bed.” Japanese 床 can mean “bed,” “floor,” or “floorboard.” Korean Hanja—Chinese characters used in Korean—uses it in words for a platform, bench, or table. One English word cannot cover all these uses.

What does 床 mean when someone sends it?

Check the language and whole word first.

A bare 床 does not tell you which language or meaning the sender intends. In Chinese it usually points to a bed; a Japanese word may use it for a floor or bed; a Korean Hanja word may name a platform or table. Read the surrounding message, or ask which language they meant.

For example, 病床 means “sickbed,” 床鋪 is Chinese for “bed with bedding,” and 床運動 is Japanese for “floor exercise.” The neighboring characters settle the meaning.

Where does 床 come from?

Its written history runs back to a picture of a bed.

An older graphic ancestor represented by 爿 appears as a bed picture in oracle-bone inscriptions, ancient writing carved on bones and shells. A later form, 牀, added 木, the component for wood; 床 is a related written variant.

In Middle Chinese, an older stage of the language, 床 could also mean a couch or folding chair. Japanese 床 also names a raised floor. Raised-floor buildings, including storehouses, are documented from Japan’s Yayoi period, an early historical period. That date describes the architecture, not when the character first appeared.