Original meaning: pestle
Pictograph of a pestle used for pounding rice, now written as 杵. The current meaning "noon" is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nguX | [m].qʰˤaʔ | 7th earthly branch |
| nguX | m-qʰˤaʔ | resist; cross-wise |
說文解字
《說文》：“午，啎也。五月陰氣午逆陽，冒地而出。此予矢同意。”
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: cut
Phonosemantic compound. 歬 represents the sound, and 刂 represents the meaning. Based on the original meaning "cut", now written as 剪. The current meaning "in front" is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzen | [dz]ˤen (~ *m-dzˤen) | before |
說文解字
《說文》：“歬，不行而進謂之歬。从止在舟上。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫The Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)