Depicts raw silk (糸) hanging from a rack.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | suH | [s]ˤak-s | white silk |
說文解字
《說文》：“素，白緻繒也。从糸、，取其澤也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.891-892
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Original meaning: wheat
Pictograph of a stalk of wheat. The current meaning "come" is a phonetic loan. The original meaning "wheat" is now written as 麥.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | loj | mə.rˤək (> *mə.rˤə) | a kind of wheat |
| loj | mə.rˤək (> *rˤə) | come |
說文解字
《說文》：“來，周所受瑞麥來麰，一來二縫。象芒朿之形。天所來也，故為行來之來。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.465
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)