巾帼须眉
jīn​guó​xū​méi

heroic woman

巾 jīn cloth

Pictograph of a cloth hanging downwards.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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

Meaning (12 of 43 verified)

常布希帮席币幕幅佩帕帐饰帽帘帆幢帜帖幌幡帷幔帧帛帼幄帙幂帑帔帏幛帻幞帱飾幗幣幟幀幃幬帳

Iconic (4)

刷帅㡀帥

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkinkrən kerchief

說文解字

《說文》：“巾，佩巾也。从冂，丨象系也。”

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)

帼 guó women's headgear Simplified

Components

巾
巾 Meaning component
jīn cloth

cloth

国
国 Sound component
guó nation

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

须 xū must Simplified

Original meaning: beard

Pictograph of a person with a bearded face. Simplified form of 須. The meaning "must" is a phonetic loan.

Components

彡
彡 Iconic component
shān, xiǎn hair
页
页 Iconic component
yè page

Depicts a head.

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

眉 méi eyebrows

Depicts hair above the eye (目).

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts eyebrows.

目
目 Iconic component
mù eye

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

履媚湄嵋楣镅鹛猸

Iconic (1)

履

Remnant (1)

履

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmijmr[ə][r] eyebrow

說文解字

《說文》：“眉，目上毛也。从目，象眉之形，上象頟理也。”

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)

幗 women's headgear Traditional

Components

巾
巾 Meaning component
jīn cloth

cloth

國
國 Sound component
guó nation

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkʷɯːɡs
kʷrɯːɡ

說文解字

婦人首飾。从巾國聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

鬚 beard Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 髟 represents the meaning and 須 represents the sound.

Components

髟
髟 Meaning component
biāo, piào, shān long hair
須
須 SoundIconic component
xū must

Depicts a head with a beard.

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsjuC-[s.n]o beard

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart