Yìn​dù

India

yìn print

Original meaning: restrain

Pictograph of a kneeling person () being held down by a hand (). Based on the original meaning "restrain", now written as . The meaning later shifted to "push down", "stamp", and "print".

Components

Iconic component
zhǎo, zhuǎ hand, claw
Iconic component
jié person kneeling

Character Evolution

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
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jinH[ʔ]iŋ-s seal

說文解字

執政所持信也。从爪从卪。凡印之屬皆从印。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

dù, du measure

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning (using a hand to measure something) and represents the sound.

Components

Sound component
shí stone
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
Iconic component
yòu hand

Depicts a hand measuring something.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartduH[d]ˤak-s measure (n.)
dak[d]ˤak measure (v.)

說文解字

法制也。从又,庶省聲。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica