段祺瑞
Duàn Qí​ruì

Duan Qirui

段 duàn section

Original meaning: forge metal

Pictograph of a hand holding a forging hammer (殳) and hitting a stone (石). Based on the original meaning "forge", now written as 鍛. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

石
石 Iconic component
shí stone
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 石 than it was in ancient scripts.
殳
殳 Iconic component
shū weapon or tool

Here depicts a hand holding a hammer.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 6 verified)

锻缎椴煅鍛緞

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttwanHtˤo[n]-s hammer

說文解字

《說文》：“段，椎物也。从殳，耑省聲。”

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)

祺 qí good luck

Phonosemantic compound. 礻 represents the meaning and 其 represents the sound.

Components

礻
礻 Meaning component
shì show

礻 is a component form of 示.

其
其 Sound component
qí its, his, (3p possessive)

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡɯ
ɡɯ

說文解字

吉也。从示其聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

瑞 ruì token made of jade, lucky, auspicious

Phonosemantic compound. 玉 represents the meaning and 耑 represents the sound.

Components

𤣩
𤣩 Meaning component
yù jade
耑
耑 Sound component
duān, zhuān tip, start, extremity
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzyweH[d]or-s jade tablet

說文解字

《說文》：“瑞，以玉為信也。从玉、耑。”

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)