tè​pī

specially approve

special

Original meaning: bull

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bull". The meaning later shifted to "prominent" and "special".

Components

Meaning component
niú cow
Sound component
sì, shì temple
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdok[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

criticize

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

is a component form of .

Sound component
to compare

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangpʰiː
Unicodepei

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang