Original meaning: live alone
Depicts a person living alone in a house (宀). The decorative strokes around the 頁 component corrupted into the unrelated 分.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kwaeX | [C.k]ʷˤraʔ | few |
說文解字
《說文》：“寡，少也。从宀，从頒。頒，分賦也，故為少。”
Sources
- Character origin
- Wiktionary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)
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kjo | k(r)a | squat; stay, dwell |
| kjo | ka | final particle | |
| kjoH | k(r)a-s (based on rhyme evidence) | dwelling |
說文解字
《說文》：“居，蹲也。从尸，古者居从古。踞，俗居从足。”
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)