神思 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

shénsī

state of mind

shén, shen spirit

Phonosemantic compound. 礻 represents the meaning and 申 represents the sound.

Components

礻 Meaning component

shì show

礻 is a component form of 示.

申 Sound component

shēn to extend

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

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

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 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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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	zyin	Cə.li[n]	spirit

說文解字

《說文》：“神，天神，引出萬物者也。从示、申。”

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)

sī, si think

Thought is associated with the head (囟) and heart (心). 囟 is also a phonetic component.

Components

囟 Sound Meaning component

xìn fontanel

Depicts the top of the head. The modern form of the this component looks like 田 (field), but is unrelated.

Change in sound

思 and 囟 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
思 *[s]ə
囟 *[s]ə[r]-s

Change in form

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

心 Meaning component

xīn, xin heart

Character Evolution

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 Qin 221-206 BC

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 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

腮鳃锶缌葸鰓

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	si	[s]ə	think

說文解字

《說文》：“思，容也。从心，囟聲。”

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)