竞赛 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

jìngsài HSK5

competition

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

sài compete Simplified

Original meaning: thank offering

Simplified form of 賽. Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 𡨄 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "thank offering". The meaning later shifted to "compete".

Components

𡨄 Sound component

sāi, xià to stop up

𡨄 is a component form of 塞.

贝 Meaning component

bèi sea shell

Shells were used as currency in ancient China.

Sources

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

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

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	gjaengH	m-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)

sài compete Traditional

Original meaning: thank offering

Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 𡨄 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "thank offering". The meaning later shifted to "compete".

Components

𡨄 Sound component

sāi, xià to stop up

𡨄 is a component form of 塞.

貝 Meaning component

bèi sea shell

Shells were used as currency in ancient China.

Character Evolution

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	slɯːɡs

說文解字

《說文新附》：“賽，報也。从貝，塞省聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)