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
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kik | k(r)ək | urgently |
| khiH | kʰ(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
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: become wet
Pictograph of a person standing under the rain (雨), representing the meaning "become wet", now written as 濡. The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The person component was later replaced with the phonetic component 而.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sju | s-no | wait |
說文解字
《說文》：“需，也，遇雨不進止也。从雨，而聲。《易》曰：‘雲上於天，需。’”
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)