咫
zhǐ

foot measure of Zhou dynasty

Phonosemantic compound. 尺 represents the meaning and 只 represents the sound.

Components

尺
尺 Meaning component
chǐ traditional Chinese unit of length ~ 1 foot
只
只 Sound component
zhǐ, zhī only

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyeXkeʔfoot (8 inches)
Zhengzhangkljeʔ

說文解字

中婦人手長八寸，謂之咫。周尺也。从尺只聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)