概形 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

gàixíng

scheme

gài approximately

Original meaning: rod used to level off a heaped measure

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 既 represents the sound.

Components

木 Meaning component

mù tree

Change in meaning

木 hints at the original meaning of 概, "rod used to level off a heaped measure", which is no longer the most common meaning of 概 in modern Mandarin.

既 Sound component

jì already

Change in sound

概 and 既 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
概 *[k]ˤə[t]-s
既 *[k]ə[t]-s

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kojH	[k]ˤə[t]-s	to strickle

說文解字

《說文》：“，斗斛。从木，既聲。邵瑛羣經正字：“今經典多作概。”

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)

xíng, xing form, shape

Phonosemantic compound. 彡 represents the meaning and 井 represents the sound.

Components

井 Sound component

jǐng well

Change in form

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

彡 Meaning component

shān, xiǎn hair

Three lines depicting a shape

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	heng	[ɢ]ˤeŋ	form, shape

說文解字

《說文》：“形，象形也。从彡，幵聲。”

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)

概 gài approximately

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

形 xíng, xing form, shape

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

gài approximately

xíng, xing form, shape