Simplified
Depicts of a hand or paw with fingernails or claws. The current meaning is a phonetic loan. In simplified Chinese 丑 is also used to mean "ugly", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 醜.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | trhjuwX | [n̥]ruʔ | 2d earthly branch |
說文解字
《說文》：“丑，紐也。十二月，萬物動，用事。象手之形。時加丑，亦舉手時也。”
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)
The characters 史 (history), 吏 (government official), 使 (cause; use; instruct), and 事 (matter; work; affair) are all etymologically related and all derive from the same ancient character, depicting a hand (又) holding a container for writing utensils. 事 and 史 were originally written the same, but later an extra mark was added to distinguish them.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzriH | [m-s-]rəʔ-s | serve; service, affair |
說文解字
《說文》：“事，職也。从史，之省聲。，古文事。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.214
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsyhuwX | t.qʰuʔ | ugly; evil |
| tsyhuwX | t.qʰuʔ | category |
說文解字
可惡也。从鬼酉聲。
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)