悽
qī

sorrowful

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 妻 represents the sound.

Components

忄
忄 Meaning component
xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

妻
妻 Sound component
qī wife

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰiːl
Unicodetsei

說文解字

痛也。从心妻聲。

Sources

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