Original meaning: separate
Pictograph of two lines facing away from each other. The current meaning "eight" is a phonetic loan. The original meaning "separate" is now written as 別.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | peat | pˤret | eight |
說文解字
《說文》：“八，別也。象分別相背之形。”
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)
Simplified
Pictograph of a cave opening.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hwet | [ɢ]ʷˤi[t] | cave, pit |
說文解字
《說文》：“穴，土室也。从宀，八聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.605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)
Traditional
Originally written the same as 鳳 (phoenix) because the two characters sounded the same. Later the bottom part of the character was abbreviated to distinguish the two characters.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | pjuwng | prəm | wind (n.) |
| pjuwngH | prəm-s | blow; criticize |
說文解字
《說文》：“風，八風也。東方曰明庶風；東南曰清明風；南方曰景風；西南曰涼風；西方曰閶闔風；西北曰不周風；北方曰廣莫風；東北曰融風。風動蟲生，故蟲八日而化。从虫，凡聲。凬，古文風。”
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)