Character 铺

Pū means “lay or pave”; pù means “shop” or “berth.”

Bronze inscriptions preserve early forms connected with a round ritual vessel for millet and grain; the written shapes use bamboo, metal, or container components beside 甫. In the early Shuowen dictionary entry, 鋪 instead names a metal fitting attached to a gate to carry a ring. This door hardware is documented on Shang-period bronze objects, so there is no single inventor or single English gloss to recover.

Modern compounds make the split practical: 铺床 and 铺路 use pū for laying or paving, while 店铺 and 床铺 use pù for a shop or berth. Simplified Chinese writes 铺; Traditional Chinese writes 鋪, with 舖 recorded as another variant.

How do I read 铺?

Read the surrounding word, not the isolated glyph.

Mandarin uses pū for spreading, arranging, or paving and pù for a shop, store, bed, or berth. Cantonese records related readings as pou1 and pou3, so the spoken form changes with the language variety even when the character looks familiar.