Depicts harvesting grain (禾) with a blade (刂). Harvest was the main source of profit in agricultural societies.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | lijH | C.ri[t]-s | sharp; profit |
說文解字
《說文》：“利，銛也。从刀；和然後利，从和省。《易》曰：‘利者，義之和也。’”
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: rope
Pictograph of a rope with four dots representing bits of threads. Based on the original meaning "rope". The meaning later shifted to "lead", "follow", "standard", "rate", and "frequency".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | lwijH | [r]ut-s | bird net |
| lwit | [r]ut | norm, standard | |
| srwijH | s-rut-s | lead (v.); commander | |
| srwit | s-rut | follow, go along |
說文解字
《說文》：“率，捕鳥畢也。象絲罔。上下其竿柄也。”
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)
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | njuns | |
| Unicode | njuìn |
說文解字
《說文》：“潤，水曰潤下。从水，閏聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)