嘚瑟

嘚 dē, dé, dāi

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth

mouth

得
得 Sound component
de, dé, děi obtain

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

瑟 sè large stringed musical instrument

Phonosemantic compound. A depiction of movable frets of an stringed instrument represents the meaning and 必 represents the sound.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts the movable frets of a stringed instrument. Modern form looks like unrelated 玨.

必
必 Sound component
bì surely
Change in sound

Character Evolution

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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsrit[s.m]ri[t] lute

說文解字

《說文》：“瑟，庖犧所作弦樂也。从珡，必聲。”

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)