Original meaning: injury; wound
Depicts a person (大) being shot by an arrow (矢). The 大 component was later replaced with meaning component 疒. Based on the original meaning "injury; wound". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "illness".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzit | [dz]i[t] | sickness |
說文解字
《說文》：“疾，病也。从疒，矢聲。，古文疾。，籀文疾。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 李学勤《字源》p.671
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Pictograph of a head (hair above a face with an eye).
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | syuwX | l̥uʔ | head |
| syuwH | l̥uʔ-s | turn the head towards |
說文解字
《說文》：“首，同，古文也。巛象髮，謂之鬊，鬊即巛也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.700
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)