紧箍咒
jǐn​gū​zhòu

restriction

紧 jǐn tense Simplified

Simplified form of 緊. Phonosemantic compound. 臤 represents the sound, while 糸 represents the meaning.

Components

𰀡
𰀡 Sound component
qiān to gouge out an eye
Change in sound
糸
糸 Meaning component
mì, sī silk

Depicts a thread being tightened.

Sources

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

箍 gū hoop

Bamboo ⺮ bindings 㧜; 㧜 also provides the pronunciation

Components

⺮
⺮ Meaning component
zhú bamboo
㧜
㧜 SoundMeaning component
liè (same as U+64F8 擸) to hold

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkʷaː

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

咒 zhòu curse

Derived from 祝, with the 礻 (show) component being replaced by 口 (mouth) component when the meaning extended to "curse". Depicts a kneeling person (卩) opening their mouth (口) to pray for disaster to happen on someone.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth
卩
卩 Iconic component
jié person kneeling

Modern form looks like 几.

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

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangtjus

Sources

Character origin
Chinese Language Stack Exchange漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

緊 jǐn tense Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 臤 represents the sound, while 糸 represents the meaning.

Components

臤
臤 Sound component
to gouge out an eye
Change in sound
糸
糸 Meaning component
mì, sī silk

Depicts a thread being tightened.

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-SagartkjinXC.qi[n]ʔ (I! no palatalization)tight

說文解字

《說文》：“緊，纏絲急也。从臤，从絲省。”

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)