Originally a small line or dot below a longer line, indicating "down". The vertical line was added to distinguish the character from 二 (two). Opposite of 上.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | haeX | gˤraʔ | down |
| haeH | m-gˤraʔ-s | descend |
說文解字
《說文》：“丅，底也。指事。下，篆文丅。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.47
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Simplified
Traditional
Original meaning: head
Pictograph of a head (首) on top of a person (卩). Means "head" when pronounced xié. Has unrelated meaning "leaf" when pronounced yè, due to this character being adopted as a variant form of 葉.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Old Chinese | |
|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | leb |
| ɡleːd |
說文解字
《說文》：“頁，頭也。从，从儿。古文如此。者首字也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)