Original meaning: early morning
Depicts the early part of morning when the sun (日) can still be seen on the horizon between blades of grass (艸), and the moon (月) is still in the sky. Based on the original meaning "early morning". The meaning later shifted to "morning audience at court", "facing", "royal court", and "dynasty".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | drjew | m-t<r>aw | (morning) audience at court |
| trjew | t<r>aw | morning |
說文解字
《說文》：“朝，旦也。从倝，舟聲。”
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)
Simplified
Depicts a gust of air.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | khj+jH | C.qʰəp-s | (inhaled thing:) breath, air, vapors |
說文解字
《說文》：“气，雲气也。象形。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.58-59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)
Traditional
Original meaning: gift of grain
Phonosemantic compound. 米 represents the meaning and 气 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "gift of grain", now written as 餼. The current meaning "air" is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | khj+jH | C.qʰəp-s | cloudy vapors |
| xj+jH | qʰət-s | to present food |
說文解字
《說文》：“氣，饋客芻米也。从米，气聲。《春秋傳》曰：‘齊人來氣諸矦。’，氣或从既；餼，氣或从食。”
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)