Pictograph of a person with ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mijX | [m]rəjʔ | beautiful |
說文解字
《說文》：“美，甘也。从羊，从大。”
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: breast
Possibly depicts a woman standing sideways with her breasts protruding. Based on the original meaning "breast", now written as 奶. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nojX | nˤə(ŋ)ʔ | your |
| nojX | nˤəʔ | then |
說文解字
《說文》：“ 乃，曳詞之難也。象气之出難。，古文乃。，籀文乃。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.389漢語多功能字庫徐中舒《甲骨文字典》p.500-501
- 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 | tsi | [ts]ə | abundant |
| Zhengzhang | ʔsɯ | ||
| Unicode | tziə |
說文解字
益也。从水兹聲。一曰滋水，出牛飲山白陘谷，東入呼沱。
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)