Depicts four dots, representing the meaning "few". Originally the same character as 小. The small dots possibly represent grains of sand (沙).
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | syewX | [s.t]ewʔ | few |
| syewH | [s-t]ewʔ-s | young |
說文解字
《說文》:“少,不多也。从小,丿聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.79
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Depicts a hand (又) holding meat (肉). In Oracle script this character was written the same as the phonetically similar 又, but later the 肉 component was added to distinguish them.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hjuwX | [ɢ]ʷəʔ | have, exist |
說文解字
《說文》:“有,不宜有也。《春秋傳》曰:‘日月有食之。’从月,又聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.550
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)