Original meaning: waist
Pictograph of two hands grabbing a woman's (女) waist. The current meaning "want" is a phonetic loan. The original meaning "waist" is now written as 腰.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'jiewH | [q]ew(k)-s | important |
說文解字
《說文》：“要，身中也，象人要自之形。从，交省聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.183
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsrɛH | s-tˤrek-s | debt |
| Zhengzhang | ʔsreːɡs | ||
| ʔsreːɡ | |||
| Unicode | jrɛi |
說文解字
債負也。从人、責，責亦聲。
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)