牵手
qiān​shǒu

hold hands

牵 qiān drag Simplified

Depicts a person (人) leading an ox (牛) by the nose (自). 人 was later reanalyzed as 大.

Components

大
大 Iconic component
dà, dài big

Depicts a person. Later reanalyzed as 大.

自
自 Iconic component
zì (nose), self
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 自 than it was in ancient scripts.
牛
牛 Iconic component
niú cow

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.93-94林志強《《文源》評注》p.312
Readings & variants
Unicode

手 shǒu, shou hand

Pictograph of a hand.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (8 of 23 verified)

举拿掌摩拳攀摹挚擎挛掣掰挈挲搿擘搴舉掱擊攣拏摯

Iconic (2)

承拜

Deleted (1)

击

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsyuwXn̥uʔ hand

說文解字

《說文》：“手，拳也。象形。，古文手。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.844
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

牽 qiān drag Traditional

Depicts a person (人) leading an ox (牛) by the nose (自). The 人 and 自 components were later corrupted into phonetic 玄.

Components

玄
玄 Sound component
xuán, xuàn black
自
自 Iconic component
zì (nose), self

Depicts a nose.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 自 than it was in ancient scripts.
牛
牛 Iconic component
niú cow

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 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 (0 of 1 verified)

縴

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

縴

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhen[k]ʰˤi[n] pull, lead, drag

說文解字

《說文》：“牽，引前也。从牛，象引牛之縻也，玄聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.93-94林志強《《文源》評注》p.312
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)