俘 (fú) — (bound form) to capture; prisoner of war; capti…

Definition

俘 (fú) is a bound morpheme meaning 'to capture' or 'captive,' almost always paired with 虏 as the set word 俘虏 ('prisoner of war / to capture').

bound form

to captureprisoner of warcaptive

Easily confused

。
Jūn duì zhuā le hěn duō fú lǔ.
The army captured many prisoners of war.
。
Zhè bù diàn yǐng fú huò le guān zhòng de xīn.
This movie captured the hearts of the audience.
。
Nà xiē zhàn fú bèi guān zài jiān yù lǐ.
Those prisoners of war were held in prison.

Sound + meaning

六书liùshū

形声xíngshēng

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

Meaning part形符xíngfú

人人rénperson

Sound part声符shēngfú

孚

Same sound today

俘 combines 人 (person) with 孚, the earlier form for “to capture,” to show a captured person.