jī​zhì

hammerhead worm

hairpin

Phonosemantic compound. ⺮ represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
zhú bamboo

bamboo

SoundMeaning component
qiān, jiān hairpin
Change in sound

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkej[k]ˤer (dialect: *-r > *-j)hairpin

說文解字

《說文》:“笄,簪也,从竹幵聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

zhì leech

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
Sound component
zhì reach

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangtiːɡ
tiɡ
tjiɡ

說文解字

蟣也。从虫至聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica