Depicts an adult man facing forward and standing erect. The meaning later shifted to "big".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | daH | lˤat-s (MC F!) | big |
| dajH | lˤa[t]-s | big |
說文解字
《說文》：“大，天大、地大、人亦大，故大象人形。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.764
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Depicts a large object (凡) like a shoulder carriage that requires the cooperation of multiple people working together to carry.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | duwng | lˤoŋ | together, join |
說文解字
《說文》：“同，合會也。从，从口。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.614
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Depicts three small dots, representing the meaning "small". Originally the same character as 少. The small dots possibly represent grains of sand (沙).
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sjewX | [s]ewʔ | small |
說文解字
《說文》：“小，物之微也。从八，丨見而分之。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.79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)
Simplified
Original meaning: carry on the head
Phonosemantic compound. 廾 represents the meaning and 已 represents the sound. Simplified form of 異. Based on the original meaning "carry on the head", now written as 戴. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | yiH | ɢ(r)ək-s | different |
說文解字
《說文》：“异，舉也。从廾，聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 李学勤《字源》p.204-205
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Original meaning: carry on the head
Depicts two hands putting something on top of the head. Based on the original meaning "carry on the head", now written as 戴. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | yiH | ɢ(r)ək-s | different |
說文解字
《說文》：“異，分也。从廾、从畀。畀，予也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 李学勤《字源》p.204-205
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)