Original meaning: divide
Depicts a knife (刂) cutting a gem into two halves (玨), based on the original meaning "to divide". The meaning later shifted to "division", "group", and "team".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | paen | pˤ<r>an | divide, distribute |
說文解字
《說文》：“班，分瑞玉。从玨，从刀。”
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: tall
Pictograph of a person standing erect with something above the head, based on the original meaning "tall". The meaning later shifted to "outstanding" and "profound".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | traewk | tˤrawk | high; splendid |
說文解字
《說文》：“，高也。早匕為，匕卪為卬，皆同義。卓，古文。”
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)
The top component is a pictograph of a zither-like stringed musical instrument. 今 is a sound component.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | gim | [C.ɢ](r)[ə]m | lute |
說文解字
《說文》：“琴，禁也。神農所作。洞越，練朱五弦，周加二弦。象形。”
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)