Original meaning: eye disease
Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 生 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "eye disease", now written as 眚. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sjengX | [s]eŋʔ | inspect |
說文解字
《說文》：“省，視也。从眉省，从屮。，古文从少，从囧。”
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: demarcate land boundaries
Phonosemantic compound. 田 represents the meaning and 各 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "demarcate land boundaries". The meaning later shifted to "outline" and "approximately".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ljak | [r]ak | draw a boundary; outline |
說文解字
《說文》：“略，經略土地也。从田，各聲。”
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)