Original meaning: bore a hole
Alludes to creating a hole (穴) with one's teeth (牙). Based on the original meaning "bore a hole". The meaning later expanded to "pass through" and "wear".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsyhwen | tʰo[n] | bore through |
說文解字
《說文》：“穿，通也。从牙在穴中。”
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)
Originally a small line or dot above a longer line, indicating "up". The vertical line was added to distinguish the character from 二 (two). Opposite of 下.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzyangX | Cə-daŋʔ | ascend |
| dzyangX | m-daŋʔ | to put up | |
| dzyangH | daŋʔ-s | top, above (n.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“丄，高也。此古文上，指事也。上，篆文丄。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.44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)