囚
qiú HSK7

prisoner

Depicts a person (人) trapped inside an enclosure (囗).

Components

囗
囗 Iconic component
wéi, guó surround
人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Unknown (0 of 5 verified)

縕醞榲轀膃

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

泅

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartzjuwsə.lu prisoner

說文解字

《說文》：“囚，繫也。从人在囗中。”

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)