布衣
bù​yī

commoners

布 bù cotton cloth

Phonosemantic compound. 巾 represents the meaning and 父 represents the sound.

Components

父
父 Sound component
fù father
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 父 than it was in ancient scripts.
巾
巾 Meaning component
jīn cloth

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

怖钸鈽佈

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpuHpˤa-s cloth
puHpˤa-s cloth

說文解字

《說文》：“布，枲織也。从巾，父聲。”

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)

衣 yī clothes

Pictograph of a shirt or coat.

Character Evolution

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 Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (17 of 34 verified)

表装裁袭袋裂衷裹裳裘襄裴亵袅褒袤裟袈衮衾褰雜襞製裒裝裏袞襲褱扆褻𧝑裊

Iconic (6)

劳衰袁卒𲀭勞

Sound (2 of 5 verified)

依哀裔铱扆

Remnant (3)

劳勞奮

Unknown (1)

奮

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'j+jʔ(r)əj clothes
'j+jHʔ(r)əj-s wear (v.t.)

說文解字

《說文》：“衣，依也。上曰衣，下曰裳。象覆二人之形。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.663
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)