名贵 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

míngguì HSK7

precious

míng name

Depicts a mouth (口) saying their own name at night (夕) when it is too dark for others to see them.

Components

夕 Iconic component

xī evening

Depicts the moon.

口 Iconic component

kǒu, kou mouth

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

铭茗酩眳銘

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mjieng	C.meŋ	name

說文解字

《說文》：“名，自命也。从口，从夕。夕者，冥也。冥不相見，故以口自名。”

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)

guì expensive Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 贝 represents the meaning and 㬰 represents the sound. Simplified form of 貴.

Components

㬰 Sound component

yú, kuì basket

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 㬰 than it was in ancient scripts.

贝 Meaning component

bèi sea shell

Depicts a shell, used as currency in ancient China.

Component uses

Sound (3 of 9 verified)

遗溃馈匮篑聩愦缋蒉

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.525-526
Readings & variants: Unicode

guì expensive Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 㬰 represents the sound.

Components

㬰 Sound component

yú, kuì basket

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 㬰 than it was in ancient scripts.

貝 Meaning component

bèi sea shell

Depicts a shell, used as currency in ancient China.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Qin 221-206 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (3 of 7 verified)

遺饋聵匱潰蕢簣

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kjw+jH	kuj-s	precious; expensive

說文解字

《說文》：“，物不賤也。从貝，臾聲。臾，古文蕢。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.525-526
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)