赖
lài HSK6

depend on

Original meaning: profit

Phonosemantic compound. 贝 represents the meaning and 剌 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "profit". The meaning later shifted to "rely on" and "blame". Simplified form of 賴.

Components

剌
剌 Sound component
lá, là cut, slash
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 剌 than it was in ancient scripts.
贝
贝 Meaning component
bèi sea shell

In ancient China shells were used as currency.

Change in meaning
贝 hints at the original meaning of 赖, "profit", which is no longer the most common meaning of 赖 in modern Mandarin.

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

懒籁濑癞獭

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

賴 lài depend on Traditional

Original meaning: profit

Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 剌 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "profit". The meaning later shifted to "rely on" and "blame".

Components

剌
剌 Sound component
lá, là cut, slash
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 剌 than it was in ancient scripts.
貝
貝 Meaning component
bèi sea shell

In ancient China shells were used as currency.

Change in meaning
貝 hints at the original meaning of 賴, "profit", which is no longer the most common meaning of 賴 in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

癩籟懶瀨

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartlajHrˤa[t]-s depend on

說文解字

《說文》：“賴，贏也。从貝，剌聲。”

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)