肆
sì HSK7

indulge

Original meaning: kill domestic animals and display them

Depicts a hand restraining a domestic animal (㣇) by holding its tail (隶). 㣇 also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "kill domestic animals and display them". The meaning later shifted to "shop", "wanton", "unrestrained", and "indulge".

Components

㣇
㣇 SoundIconic component
yì a kind of beast with long hair

Depicts a wild animal. Modern form looks like 镸.

Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 㣇 than it was in ancient scripts.
隶
隶 Iconic component
lì subservient

Depicts a hand (又) grabbing a tail (尾). Modern form looks like 聿.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsijHs-ləp-s unrestrained

說文解字

《說文》：“，極陳也。从長，隶聲。，或从髟。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.216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)