Two spoons side-by-side, conveying the meaning "to put together", "match", or "compare". 匕 also represents the sound.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | pjijX | C.pijʔ | compare |
| pjijH | pij-s | combine; all |
說文解字
《說文》：“比，密也。二人為从，反从為比。夶，古文比。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 尤梓竹《甲骨文字考釋提要（一）》p.56李学勤《字源》p.725
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: bull
Phonosemantic compound. 牛 represents the meaning and 寺 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bull". The meaning later shifted to "prominent" and "special".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dok | [d]ˤək | bull |
說文解字
《說文》：“特，朴特，牛父也。从牛，寺聲。”
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)