Original meaning: to carve jade
Depicts a carved jade object, now written as 彫/琱. The meaning later shifted to "circumference" and "cycle". Later the 口 component was added when 周 was used to refer to a geographical region to indicate that the character was only "mouthed", i.e. used for its sound. In simplified Chinese 周 is also used to mean "week", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 週.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsyuw | tiw | Zhōu (dynasty and place) |
| tsyuw | tiw | cycle; all around |
說文解字
《說文》：“周，密也。从用、口。，古文周字从古文及。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.99-100林志強《《文源》評注》p.134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)
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | yu | lo | change (v.) |
| Zhengzhang | lo | ||
| Unicode | io |
說文解字
變汙也。从水俞聲。一曰渝水，在遼西臨俞，東出塞。
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: slave
Pictograph of an eye (目) being poked with something sharp. In ancient China, slaves were sometimes punished by blinding them with a sharp object. Based on the original meaning "slave". The meaning later shifted to "common person".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mjin | mi[ŋ] | people |
說文解字
《說文》：“民，眾萌也。从古文之象。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.855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)