癸
guǐ

10th heavenly stem

Original meaning: a type of weapon

Possibly depicts a type of ancient weapon with three points on it. Based on the original meaning "a type of weapon", now written as 戣. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Jin 266-420 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Xin 9-23 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Xin 9-23 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

葵睽揆阕暌

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjwijXkʷijʔ 10th heavenly stem

說文解字

《說文》：“癸，冬時水土平，可揆度也。象水從四方流入地中之形。癸承壬，象人足。，籀文从癶，从矢。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.969-970漢語多功能字庫何琳儀《戰國古文字典：戰國文字聲系》p.1189
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)