Pictograph of a hand (又) grabbing an ear (耳). In ancient China, the ears of opponents in battle were cut off and collected as tokens of victory.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tshuwX | tsʰˤoʔ | take |
| tshjuX | tsʰoʔ | take | |
| tshjuH | [ts]ʰoʔ-s | take (a wife) |
說文解字
《說文》：“取，捕取也。从又，从耳。《周禮》：‘獲者取左耳。’《司馬法》曰：‘載獻聝。’聝者，耳也。”
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)
Simplified
Traditional
Original meaning: burst open
Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 夬 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "burst open". The meaning later shifted to "clear", "cut off", "decide" and "judge".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kwet | [k]ʷˤet | open a passage for a stream |
| kwet | [k]ʷˤet | open; decide |
說文解字
《說文》：“決，行流也。从水，从夬。廬江有決水，出於大別山。”
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)