濒死 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

bīnsǐ

dying

bīn riverside Simplified

Depicts a person standing (页) on the shore wading (涉) in shallow water.

Components

涉 Iconic component

shè wade

页 Iconic component

yè page

Depicts a head on top of a person.

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

sǐ die

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

歹 Iconic component

dǎi, è, dāi evil, bad

Depicts a digging tool.

人 Iconic component

rén, ren person

Depicts a person.

Change in form

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Meaning (1 of 4 verified)

Iconic (1)

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)

riverside Traditional

Depicts a person standing (頁) on the shore wading (涉) in shallow water.

Components

涉 Iconic component

shè wade

頁 Iconic component

yè (head), page

Depicts a head on top of a person.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pjin	pi[n]	river bank, shore

說文解字

《說文》：“瀕，水厓，人所賓附，頻蹙不前而止。从頁，从涉。”

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)