委靡 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

wěimǐ

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wěi bent, winding

Depicts grain (禾) in a bent shape (𠃊).

Components

禾 Iconic component

hé grain stalk

𠃊 Iconic component

yǐn hidden area

Used here to depict a bent shape. Modern form looks like 女.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠃊 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

魏矮萎倭诿痿逶諉

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	'jwe	q(r)oj	委蛇 compliant, complaisant
	'jweX	q(r)ojʔ	entrust to
	'jweX	q(r)ojʔ	collect; store
	'jweX	q(r)orʔ	bend; hang down

說文解字

《說文》：“委，委隨也。从女，从禾。”

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)

mǐ, mí, má divide

Phonosemantic compound. 非 represents the meaning and 麻 represents the sound.

Components

非 Meaning component

fēi not

麻 Sound component

má, ma hemp

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

蘼

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mje	m(r)aj	to share with
	mjeX	m(r)ajʔ	squander; not have, not exist; fall over; small, tiny
Zhengzhang		mralʔ
Unicode	myɛ̌

說文解字

披靡也。从非麻聲。

Sources

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

委 wěi bent, winding

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

靡 mǐ, mí, má divide

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

wěi bent, winding

mǐ, mí, má divide