Original meaning: armless child
Pictograph of a young child, similar to 子, but without arms. Compare to 孑 (child only with right arm) and 孓 (child only with left arm). The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | reːwʔ | |
| Unicode | leǔ | |
| leǔ |
說文解字
《說文》：“了，尦也。从子無臂，象形。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.972
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsrɛH | s-tˤrek-s | debt |
| Zhengzhang | ʔsreːɡs | ||
| ʔsreːɡ | |||
| Unicode | jrɛi |
說文解字
債負也。从人、責，責亦聲。
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)