nài

crab-apple tree

Original meaning: offer sacrifice for fortune-telling

Depicts wood () atop a sacrificial altar (). Based on the original meaning "offer sacrifice for fortune-telling". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Iconic component
tree

tree

Iconic component
shì show

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 (2)

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangnaːds

說文解字

《說文》:“柰,果也。从木,示聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica