唏
xī

weep or sob

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 希 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
希
希 Sound component
xī hope

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhanghlɯlʔ
hlɯls
Unicodexiə̌i
xiə̀i

說文解字

笑也。从口，稀省聲。一曰哀痛不泣曰唏。

Sources

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