fú​wéi

prostrate

crouch

Original meaning: to lie down

Depicts a person () lying down next to a dog (). The meaning later shifted to "crouch".

Components

Iconic component
rén person

is a component form of .

Iconic component
quǎn dog

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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 (0 of 2 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbjuwH[b]ək-s hatch (v.)
bjuwk[b]ək lie prostrate

說文解字

《說文》:“伏,司也。从人,从犬。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

wéi but

Original meaning: to think

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Meaning component
xin, xīn heart

is a component form of .

Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "to think", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.
Sound component
zhuī, cuī, wéi bird
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartywijɢʷij (copula); namely

說文解字

《說文》:“惟,凡思也。从心,隹聲。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.932
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica