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)
Simplified
Simplified form of 麥. The top component 來 depicts a stalk of wheat. The bottom component depicts roots.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
說文解字
《說文》:“麥,芒穀。秋穜厚薶,故謂之麥。麥,金也。金王而生,火王而死。从來,有穗者。从夕。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.465
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
The top component 來 depicts a stalk of wheat. The bottom component depicts roots.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | meak | m-rˤək (dialect: *m-rˤ > *mˤr-) | wheat |
說文解字
《說文》:“麥,芒穀。秋穜厚薶,故謂之麥。麥,金也。金王而生,火王而死。从來,有穗者。从夕。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.465
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)