北魏
Běi Wèi

Northern Wei

北 běi north

Original meaning: back

Pictograph of two people standing back-to-back. Based on the original meaning "back", now written as 背. The current meaning "north" is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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 (1 of 2 verified)

背邶

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

背冀

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpokpˤək north

說文解字

《說文》：“北，也。从二人相背。”

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)

魏 wèi, wéi, wēi kingdom of Wei

Phonosemantic compound. 鬼 represents the meaning and 委 represents the sound.

Components

鬼
鬼 Meaning component
guǐ ghost
委
委 Sound component
wěi bent, winding

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

巍

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartngjwɨjN-qʰujhigh, majestic
ngjwɨjHN-qʰuj-shigh
Zhengzhangŋɡuls
Unicodengiuə̀i

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang