bēi​cuī

miserable

bēi sorrow

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Sound component
fēi not
Meaning component
xīn, xin heart

Character Evolution

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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpijprəj sad

說文解字

《說文》:“悲,痛也。从心,非聲。”

Sources

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

cuī destroy

Components

Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

hand

Sound component
cuī high

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangzluːl
Unicodedzhuəi

說文解字

擠也。从手崔聲。一曰挏也,一曰折也。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica