slaughter, massacre

屠 is composed of 尸 (corpse) and 者 (this, person). 尸 represents a dead body, while 者 depicts a pile of firewood being used to start a fire for cooking, and from the pile of firewood it extends to the meaning of many or numerous. When there are many corpses, it means there has been much slaughter. Therefore, 屠 is used to mean to slaughter or massacre.