綏 / 绥 suí originally refers to the rope used for holding onto a vehicle (when seated or for climbing onto it – think the early days vehicle, which would be a horse or donkey cart rumbling along, probably over a gritty surface).
This is another character where one can work out what is happening by doing a breakdown of all the parts:
* silk radical (糹/ 纟sī), therefore something made of fabric, silk in this case
* claw (爪 zhuǎ,zhǎo) over woman (女 nǚ) = 妥 tuǒ / appropriate (covered in the blog about characters with the woman / 女 nǚ radical – see below for link)
So, something made of fabric that is appropriate for helping to keep one's balance while on a vehicle, or for helping to steady oneself while climbing onto it = 綏 / 绥 suí.
The extended meaning of this character is comfort, stability, well-being or a state of retreat or relaxation. One can see how the connection is made: if one has a rope to hold onto the vehicle / to steady oneself, one would not fall off, hence one is in a state of stability, and therefore comfort or well-being / one is relaxed.
Chinese characters might appear at first sight to be just strokes (of the writing implement) thrown together to form some kind of image for the written representation, but a lot of them can actually be broken down for one to make sense of why those parts are used, i.e., there's logic to how the character was born.
Chinese characters: 05 (Characters with 女 nǚ radical)
https://piccola-chinita.blogspot.com/2025/07/chinese-characters-05-characters-with.html
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