Original meaning: city wall
In ancient scripts 丁 was written in two different ways: (1) depicting the walls of a city, which is now written as 圍, or (2) depicting a nail, which is now written as 釘.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | teng | tˤeŋ | 4th heavenly stem |
| teng | tˤeŋ | nail (n.) | |
| treang | tˤreŋ | sound of beating |
說文解字
《說文》：“丁，夏時萬物皆丁實。象形。丁承丙，象人心。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p. 962
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: a type of snake creature
Depicts a snake-like creature. Based on the original meaning "a type of snake creature". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ziX | s-[ɢ]əʔ | 6th earthly branch |
說文解字
《說文》：“巳，巳也，四月陽气巳出，陰气巳藏，萬物見，成文章，故巳為蛇。象形。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.979
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Simplified
Pictograph of a foot entering or exiting a building, representing the meaning "to return".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | bjuwk | m-p(r)uk | return |
說文解字
《說文》：“，行故道也。从夊，畗省聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | bek | [b]ˤek | inner coffin |
| bjiek | [N]-pek | law, rule; lawful | |
| pjiek | pek | ruler, prince |
說文解字
《說文》：“辟，法也。从卩，从辛，節制其辠也；从口，用法者也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | bjuwH | [N]-pruk-s | again |
| bjuwk | m-p(r)uk | return |
說文解字
《說文》：“復，往來也。从彳，复聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)