Original meaning: obey
Depicts a woman (女) obeying spoken (口) orders. Based on the original meaning "obey". The meaning later shifted to "be similar" and "like". 女 also serves as a sound component.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nyo | na | go to |
| nyo | na | as, like, if |
說文解字
《說文》：“如，从隨也。从女，从口。”
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)
Origin unclear. Two possible explanations are (1) depicts a person (人) stopping (止), meaning "here", and (2) depicts a foot (止) kicking a person (人), based on an earlier meaning "to kick" (跐).
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tshjeX | [tsʰ]e(j)ʔ | this |
說文解字
《說文》：“此，止也。从止，从匕。匕，相比次也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.119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: to meet
Simplified form of 這, which originally meant "to meet" and had a pronunciation corresponding to modern Mandarin yàn. 這 later acquired an unrelated pronunciation and meaning through confusion with another character.
Components
Sources
- Character origin
- Wiktionary
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
Original meaning: tray
Phonosemantic compound. 殳 represents the meaning and 凡 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "tray", now written as 盤/槃. The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The original 凡 component was later corrupted to 舟 (boat).
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Old Chinese | |
|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | praːn |
| paːn | |
| baːn |
說文解字
《說文》：“般，辟也。象舟之旋，从舟，从殳。殳，所以旋也。，古文般从支。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Original meaning: to meet
Phonosemantic compound. 辶 represents the meaning and 言 represents the sound. The character originally meant "to meet" and had a pronunciation corresponding to modern Mandarin yàn. 這 later acquired an unrelated pronunciation and meaning through confusion with 遮.
Components
Historical Pronunciations
| Old Chinese | |
|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | ŋrans |
Sources
- Character origin
- Wiktionary
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang