xiāng​chì

repel

xiāng, xiàng mutual

Original meaning: look at

Depicts an eye () looking at a tree (). Based on the original meaning "look at". The meaning of this character has shifted over time to "compare" and "each other".

Components

Iconic component
tree
Iconic component
eye

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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 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
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 8 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsjang[s]aŋ mutually
sjangH[s]aŋ-s appearance, quality

說文解字

《說文》:“相,省視也。从目,从木。《易》曰:‘地可觀者莫可觀於木。’《詩》曰:‘相鼠有皮。’”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.267漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

chì to scold

Original meaning: develop new land

Phonosemantic compond: 广 represents the meaning and represents the sound. Originally a variant form of , based on the original meaning "to develop new land". The meaning later shifted to "expand", "get rid of", "rebuff", and "scold".

Components

广
广 Meaning component
guǎng roof
Sound component
tuō, zhé to depend on
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.

Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyhektʰAk rebuff; salty soil

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.724-725漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart