指纹
zhǐ​wén

fingerprint

指 zhǐ, zhí, zhī finger

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 旨 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

旨
旨 Sound component
zhǐ purpose

Character Evolution

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 Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyijXmə.kijʔ finger; point

說文解字

《說文》：“指，手指也。从手，旨聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

纹 wén line Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 纟 represents the meaning and 文 represents the sound. Simplified form of 紋.

Components

纟
纟 Meaning component
mì silk

纟 is a component form of 糸.

文
文 Sound component
wén writing

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

紋 wén line Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 糹 represents the meaning and 文 represents the sound.

Components

糹
糹 Meaning component
mì silk

糹 is a component form of 糸.

文
文 Sound component
wén writing

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangmɯn
Unicodemiən

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang