派
pài
(literary) tributary; branch of a river
clique; school; group; faction; (bound form) style; manner; to send (a person or resource); to dispatch; to allocate (a resource or task); to appoint (sb); classifier for factions, groups etc; (preceded by 一[yi1]) classifier used in characterizing a scene, atmosphere, demeanor, sound, remark etc; (loanword) pi (Greek letter Π, π); the circular ratio 𝜋 = 3.14159...; (loanword) pie
water (氵) + clan (氏) = branch, faction, or tributary
氏 mainly gives the sound pài; the water radical anchors the original meaning of a river branching off into tributaries. From that image of flowing water splitting into streams, 派 extended naturally to factions, schools of thought, and dispatching people along different paths.
老师派我去图书馆借书。
lǎo shī pài wǒ qù tú shū guǎn jiè shū。
The teacher sent me to the library to borrow books.
公司派他到外地处理这件事。
gōng sī pài tā dào wài dì chǔ lǐ zhè jiàn shì。
The company dispatched him to another place to handle this matter.
Words with 派
分派
fēn pài
to assign (a task to different people)
硬派
yìng pài
hard-line
委派
wěi pài
to appoint
新派
xīn pài
new faction
派克
pài kè
Pike or Peck (name)
民主派
mín zhǔ pài
(Hong Kong politics) the pro-democracy camp (founded 1987), aka the pan-democrats
流派
liú pài
tributary (stream)
反对派
fǎn duì pài
opposition faction
噶举派
gá jǔ pài
Geju (Tibetan: transmit word of Buddha) sect of Tibetan Buddhist
正派
zhèng pài
(of a person) upright; respectable; decent
差派
chāi pài
to dispatch
造反派
zào fǎn pài
rebel faction