■ radical

suǒ

place

How it’s built

Phonosemantic compound. 斤 represents the meaning and 戶 represents the sound. The contribution of 斤 (axe) to the meaning is unclear.

斤

meaning

axe

戶

sound

door — The pronunciation of 所 was similar to 戶 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.