tíng​wèi

minister of justice

tíng court

Original meaning: courtyard

Depicts a person standing on the ground (𡈼) in front of a corner of a courtyard (𠃊). Based on the original meaning "courtyard", now written as .

Components

𠃊
𠃊 Iconic component
yǐn hidden area

Depicts the corner of a courtyard or a curved ground. Modern form looks like .

𡈼
𡈼 SoundIconic component
tǐng, tíng, zhēng stand upright

Depicts a person () standing on the ground (). 𡈼 also represents the sound.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 9 verified)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdenglˤeŋ courtyard

說文解字

《說文》:“廷,朝中也。从廴,聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.134-135
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

wèi, yù, yùn officer

Original meaning: to iron

Depicts a hand () holding two stones over fire () to iron a person's () back as a treatment for a disease. Based on the original meaning "to iron", now written as . The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Iconic component
shī sitting person

Depicts a person sitting or squatting.

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts two pieces of small elliptical stones.

Iconic component
huǒ fire

Modern form looks like unrelated .

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Depicts a hand.


Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 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 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangquds
qud
Unicodeqiuə̀i

說文解字

《說文》:“尉,从上案下也。从、又,持火以尉申繒也。”

Sources

Character origin
林志強《《文源》評注》p.266黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.3200
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica