Original meaning: varicolored cow
Phonosemantic compound. 牛 represents the meaning and 勿 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "variety", depicting the variety of colors on a cow. Later the meaning shifted to "things".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mjut | C.mut | thing |
說文解字
《說文》：“物，萬物也。牛為大物，天地之數，起於牽牛，故从牛，勿聲。”
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)
Original meaning: carry
Depicts a person (人) carrying something.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | yiX | ləʔ | take, use |
說文解字
《說文》：“，用也。从反已。賈侍中說，已，意已實也。象形。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.980
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Simplified
Components
米 Simplified component
Shorthand for 頪, the sound component in the traditional character 頪.
大 Simplified component
Shorthand for 犬, the meaning component in the traditional character 頪.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzjuX | m-tsʰoʔ | bring together |
| dzjuH | m-tsʰoʔ-s | bring together |
說文解字
《說文》：“聚，會也。从，取聲。邑落云聚。”
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 | lwijH | [r]u[t]-s | category |
說文解字
《說文》：“類，種類相似，唯犬為甚。从犬，頪聲。”
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)