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)
Original meaning: demarcate land boundaries
Phonosemantic compound. 田 represents the meaning and 各 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "demarcate land boundaries". The meaning later shifted to "outline" and "approximately".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ljak | [r]ak | draw a boundary; outline |
說文解字
《說文》：“略，經略土地也。从田，各聲。”
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)