西 was written two different ways in ancient scripts: (1) a pictograph of a bird's nest, and (2) a variant of the phonetically similar 囟.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sej | s-nˤər | west |
| sej | s-nˤər | west |
說文解字
《說文》:“西,鳥在巢上,象形。日在西方而鳥棲,故因以為東西之西。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.831-832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)
Pictograph of a hand (又) peeling off the skin from an animal.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | bje | m-[p](r)aj | skin |
說文解字
《說文》:“皮,剝取獸革者謂之皮。从又,為省聲。,古文皮。,籀文皮。”
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)