Learn one Chinese Character a day - 究

Today let us look at a new Chinese character "究"， from its font, it consists of two parts, upper part is “穴”, and lower part is "九".

We have just learnt that "穴" means a "Cave" or "Hole" or "Burrow" and "九" has its original meaning as "crawling around to Explore or Search". So "究" was created with meaning of "Crawling in a cave to Explore or Search the unknown space". "穴" here is used to emphasize an unknown space that is being Explored or Searched.
so "究" means Explore or Search.

Below is the evolution history of "究". (image get fromhttp://www.vividict.com):

Learn one Chinese Character a day - 究

In Oracle Script it was same as "九"， starting from Seal Script , Chinese Ancestors added  to differentiate it from "九", and it then slowly transformed to our current way of writing as "究".

At the end of our lesson today, let us enjoy a Chinese Calligraphy with "究" inside:

研究所