Pictograph of a left hand. The 工 (work) component was added later to represent the meaning "help; assist", now written as 佐.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsaX | tsˤa[j]ʔ | left (side) |
| tsaX | tsˤa[j]ʔ | assist | |
| tsaH | tsˤarʔ-s | assist |
說文解字
《說文》：“左，手相左助也。从、工。”
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)
Depicts the outline of a face, with an eye (目) in the middle. In simplified Chinese 面 is also used to mean "noodles", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 麵.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mjienH | C.me[n]-s | face |
說文解字
《說文》：“面，顏前也。从，象人面形。”
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)