孰
shú

who? which? what? which one?

Original meaning: offer sacrifice

Depicts a person with both hands outstretched (丮) offering food at a temple (享). Based on the original meaning "offer sacrifice". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

享
享 Iconic component
xiǎng enjoy

Depicts a temple or shrine.

丮
丮 Iconic component
jǐ catch

Depicts a person with both hands outstretched. Modern form looks like unrelated 丸.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

熟塾

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyuwk[d]uk who

說文解字

《說文》：“，食飪也。从，聲。《易》曰：‘孰飪。’”

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)