借喻 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

jièyù

metaphor

jiè borrow

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 昔 represents the sound.

亻 Meaning component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

昔 Sound component

xī, cuò in the past, ancient times

Change in sound

借 and 昔 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
借 *[ts]Ak
昔 *[s]Ak

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsjaeH	[ts]Ak-s	loan, borrow
	tsjek	[ts]Ak	loan, borrow

《說文》：“借，假也。从人，昔聲。”

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 俞 represents the sound.

口 Meaning component

kǒu, kou mouth

俞 Sound component

yú, shù surname

Regular Modern

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