Original meaning: wart
Pictograph of a hand with a wart on it. The original meaning "wart" is now written as 疣. The original meaning later expanded to "strange, bizarre" and "outstanding, special".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hjuw | [ɢ]ʷə | fault; even more |
說文解字
《說文》:“尤,異也。从乙,又聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.960
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
A village (里) is an area of land (土) where people have fields (田). In simplified Chinese 里 is also used to mean "inside", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 裡.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | liX | (mə.)rəʔ | li (measure of distance); village |
說文解字
《說文》:“里,居也。从田,从土。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.913
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: cut
Phonosemantic compound. 斤 represents the meaning and 其 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "cut". Nowadays this character is usually only used for its sound in phonetic loans.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sje | [s]e | split (v.) |
| sje | [s]e | this | |
| sje | se | 斯須 a short time |
說文解字
《說文》:“斯,析也。从斤,其聲。《詩》曰:‘斧以斯之。’”
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)
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'jij | ʔij | this |
說文解字
《說文》:“伊,殷聖人阿衡,尹治天下者。从人,从尹。”
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)
Pictograph of a man with writing (possibly a tattoo) on his chest. In later scripts the writing was abbreviated to a dot or omitted altogether.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mjun | mə[n] | ornate |
說文解字
《說文》:“文,錯畫也。象交文。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.706
- 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 | si | [s]ə | think |
說文解字
《說文》:“思,容也。从心,囟聲。”
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)