妲己
Dá​jǐ

Daji

妲 dá concubine of last ruler of the Shang dynasty

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 旦 represents the sound.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
旦
旦 Sound component
dàn dawn

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtaːd
Unicodedɑt

說文解字

女字。妲己，紂妃。从女旦聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

己 jǐ self

Origin unclear. Possibly a pictograph of a silk rope, in which case would be the original form of 紀.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 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 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

Sound (6 of 12 verified)

起记改纪忌杞圮芑記紀屺巹

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkiXk(r)əʔ 6th heavenly stem
kiXk(r)əʔ self

說文解字

《說文》：“己，中宮也，象萬物辟藏詘形也。己承戊，象人腹，，古文己。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.964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)