竞秀
jìng​xiù

compete in beauty

竞 jìng compete Simplified

Simplified form of 競. Pictograph of two people side-by-side competing with each other.

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

秀 xiù elegant, excellent

Depicts a grain seedling (禾) pulled out (引) of the ground. The meaning later expanded to "bloom", "blossom", "elegant", and "excellent".

Components

禾
禾 Iconic component
hé grain stalk
引
引 IconicRemnant component
yǐn to pull

Modern form looks like 乃.

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

Character Evolution

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
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

透诱绣锈莠誘銹

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

诱誘

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsjuwH[s-l]u(ʔ)-s to flower

說文解字

《說文》：“秀，上諱。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.632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)

競 jìng compete Traditional

Pictograph of two people side-by-side competing with each other.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 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 Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartgjaengHm-kraŋʔ-s
(~ C-kraŋʔ-s)		strive; compete

說文解字

《說文》：“競，彊語也。一曰逐也。从誩，从二人。”

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)