Original meaning: gather
Phonosemantic compound. 宀 represents the meaning and 取 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "gather". The meaning later shifted to "accumulate", "many" and "most". Originally written as 㝡. Later extra strokes were added to the 宀 component.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tswajH | [ts]ˤot-s | collect; most |
說文解字
《說文》：“最，犯而取也。从冃，从取。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.617
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | tiːl | |
| Unicode | dei | |
| dei |
說文解字
《說文新附》：“低，下也。从人、氐，氐亦聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Components
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | drjew | [N]-t<r>aw | morning tide |
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart