砺
lì

whetstone

A stone 石 used to hone 厉 blades; 厉 also provides the pronunciation

Components

石
石 Meaning component
shí stone
厉
厉 SoundMeaning component
lì whetstone

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

礪 whetstone Traditional

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartljejH[r]at-sgrindstone
Zhengzhangm·rads
Unicodeliɛ̀i

說文解字

䃺也。从石厲聲。經典通用厲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)