玺印 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

xǐyìn

seal

xǐ imperial signet Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 玉 represents the meaning and 尔 represents the sound. Simplified form of 璽.

Components

玉 Meaning component

yù jade

尔 Sound component

ěr you

Change in sound

玺 and 尔 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

yìn print

Original meaning: restrain

Pictograph of a kneeling person (卩) being held down by a hand (爪). Based on the original meaning "restrain", now written as 抑. The meaning later shifted to "push down", "stamp", and "print".

Components

爪 Iconic component

zhǎo, zhuǎ hand, claw

卩 Iconic component

jié person kneeling

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 Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (2)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	'jinH	[ʔ]iŋ-s	seal

說文解字

執政所持信也。从爪从卪。凡印之屬皆从印。

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)

imperial signet Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 玉 represents the meaning and 爾 represents the sound.

Components

玉 Meaning component

yù jade

爾 Sound component

ěr you

Change in sound

璽 and 爾 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
璽 *s.[n]e[r]ʔ
爾 *nˤ[ə][r]ʔ

Character Evolution

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

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 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

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sjeX	s.[n]e[r]ʔ	seal (n.)

說文解字

《說文》：“壐，王者印也，所以主土。从土，爾聲。璽，籀文从玉。”

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)