艮位
gèn​wèi

position of Gen

艮 gěn, gèn, hén blunt

Original meaning: look backwards

Depicts a person looking backwards. Based on the original meaning "look backwards". The modern meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

目
目 Iconic component
mù eye

Depicts an eye.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 目 than it was in ancient scripts.
人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person

Horizontally flipped version of 人, depicts a person looking backwards.

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

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (11 of 21 verified)

很眼根跟限银恨艰狠痕恳垦龈垠裉哏茛銀齦艱貇

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

很貇

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkɯːns

說文解字

《說文》：“艮，很也。从匕目。匕目，猶目相匕，不相下也。《易》曰：‘艮其限。匕目為艮，匕目為真也。’”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.648
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

位 wèi position

Depicts a person (亻) standing (立) in a specific position.

Components

亻
亻 Iconic component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

立
立 SoundIconic component
lì stand

立 also represents the sound.

Change in sound

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

莅

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

涖

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthwijH[ɢ]ʷrəp-s (< *ɢʷəʔ-rəp-s ?)standing, position

說文解字

《說文》：“位，列中庭之左右謂之位。从人、立。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫廣韻形聲考
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)