拜别
bài​bié

bid farewell

拜 bài pay respects

Original meaning: pull out

Depicts a hand (手) pulling a plant (𠦪) out of the ground. Based on the original meaning "pull out", now written as 拔. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

手
手 Iconic component
shǒu, shou hand
𠦪
𠦪 Iconic component
tāo, hū decorative plant

Simplified from the ancient character 𢳎.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠦪 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

湃

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpeajHC.pˤro[t]-s bow, bend (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“，首至地也。从手、。，音忽。拜，揚雄說，拜从兩手下。，古文拜。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.844-845李学勤《字源》p.1054
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

别 bié, biè separate Simplified

Simplified form of 別. Depicts a knife (刂) cutting meat off of a bone (另).

Components

另
另 Iconic component
lìng (bones), another

Depicts a bone.

刂
刂 Iconic component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

捌

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

捌

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangpred
bred

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

別 bié, biè separate Traditional

Depicts a knife (刂) cutting meat off of a bone （冎）.

Components

冎
冎 Iconic component
guǎ bone
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 冎 than it was in ancient scripts.
刂
刂 Iconic component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbjetN-pret be separated (intr.)
pjetpret separate (tr.)

說文解字

《說文》：“，分解也。从冎，从刀。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.336
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)