僵持
jiāng​chí

stalemate

僵 jiāng stiff and motionless

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

person

畺
畺 Sound component
jiāng, jiàng boundary

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkaŋ
Unicodegiɑng

說文解字

僨也。从人畺聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

持 chí sustain

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 寺 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

寺
寺 Sound component
sì, shì temple

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdri[d]rə grasp, hold

說文解字

《說文》：“持，握也。从手，寺聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)