抑
yì HSK7

press down

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 印 represents the sound. Originally written as 印 or 色.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

印
印 Sound component
yìn print

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 Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'ik[ʔ](r)ik and, but, or
'ik[ʔ]ik rub, repress

說文解字

《說文》:“,按也。从反‘印’。抑,俗从手。”

Sources

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