亟
jíqì

urgently

Originally a pictograph of a person with lines at the top and bottom, depicting the original meaning "extremity". Later the 口 (mouth) and 又 (hand) components were added to depict shouting in an urgent situation, such as being chased.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Used to represent the meaning "extremity". Depicts a person with lines at the top and bottom.

口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth
又
又 Iconic component
yòu hand

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkikk(r)ək urgently
khiHkʰ(r)ək-s often

說文解字

《說文》:“亟,敏疾也。从人,从口,从又,从二。二,天地也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica