Pictograph of two hands (廾) twisting together a long rope (糸). The meaning later expanded to "search" and "demand".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (0 of 1 verified)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sak | [s]ˤak | twist a rope |
| sak | [s]ˤak | search (v.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“索，艸有莖葉可作繩索。从糸。杜林說：，亦朱字。”
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)
Original meaning: burn
Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 肰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "burn", now written as 燃. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nyen | [n]a[n] | so, thus; (adv suffix) |
說文解字
《說文》：“然，燒也。从火，肰聲。，或从艸、難。”
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)
Original meaning: live alone
Depicts a person living alone in a house (宀). The decorative strokes around the 頁 component corrupted into the unrelated 分.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kwaeX | [C.k]ʷˤraʔ | few |
說文解字
《說文》：“寡，少也。从宀，从頒。頒，分賦也，故為少。”
Sources
- Character origin
- Wiktionary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)
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mj+jH | m[ə]t-s | taste (n.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“味，滋味也。从口，未聲。”
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)