Original meaning: to bury a person
Depicts using a digging tool (歹) to bury a person (人). Based on the original meaning "to bury a person". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "die".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sijX | sijʔ | die (v.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“死，澌也，人所離也。从歺，从人。，古文死如此。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 张昂《说“死”“葬”》廣韻形聲考
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Components
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | ŋɡraːŋs | |
| ŋɡraːŋs | ||
| Unicode | ngɛ̀ng |
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 北 represents the sound.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | bwojH | m-pˤək-s | turn the back on |
| pwojH | pˤək-s | the back |
說文解字
《說文》：“背，也。从肉，北聲。”
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)
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kiH | C.k(r)ə(ʔ)-s | remember; record (v.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“記，疏也。从言，己聲。”
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)