白马寺 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

Báimǎ Sì

White Horse Temple

bái, bai white

Origin unclear. Possibly depicts a thumb or a person's face.

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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

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

Seal form — Seal Qin 221-206 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (8 of 15 verified)

百怕伯迫拍帕柏泊舶魄珀帛粕铂樂

Meaning (2 of 13 verified)

的珀皓皖皑皋皙皎皤皅皦皒皚

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	baek	bˤrak	white

說文解字

《說文》：“白，西方色也。陰用事，物色白。从入合二。二，陰數。，古文白。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.625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)

mǎ horse Simplified

Simplified form of 馬. Pictograph of a horse.

Component uses

Meaning (6 of 57 verified)

Sound (5 of 8 verified)

吗妈玛码骂蚂犸杩

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.741-742漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

sì, shì temple

Original meaning: to hold

Phonosemantic compound. 又 represents the meaning and 之 represents the sound. 又 was later reanalyzed as 寸, which also depicts a hand. Based on the original meaning "to hold", now written as 持. The current meaning "temple" is a phonetic loan.

Components

之 Sound component

zhī [attributive particle]

Change in sound

寺 and 之 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
寺 *s-[d]əʔ-s
之 *tə

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 之 than it was in ancient scripts.

寸 Meaning component

cùn, cun (hand), inch

Originally 又 but later reanalyzed as 寸. Depicts a hand.

Change in meaning

寸 hints at the original meaning of 寺, "to hold", which is no longer the most common meaning of 寺 in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC

Seal form — Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (7 of 11 verified)

等特持待诗侍峙恃痔詩時

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ziH	s-[d]əʔ-s	hall

說文解字

《說文》：“寺，廷也，有法度者也。从寸，之聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.234漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.242-243
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

mǎ horse Traditional

Pictograph of a horse.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

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 Shang ~1100 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

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

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

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

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

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

Clerical form — Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (8 of 49 verified)

驗驚驩駮騾驅驀驟駕駝驌騙驊馮馳駛騎驎羈駐騁騫騷驢驦馴騰驕驥驛駁馭騶馱騭駟駑駒騖駢駱騅駿驪駭驤騮闖駙 show all 49 show fewer

Sound (5 of 6 verified)

碼螞罵嗎瑪媽

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	maeX	mˤraʔ	horse

說文解字

《說文》：“馬，怒也；武也。象馬頭髦尾四足之形。，古文。，籀文馬與同，有髦。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.741-742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)