zǒu​shí

keep time

zǒu walk

Originally written as , depicting a person swaying their arms () while walking quickly. The foot component was added later.

Components

Iconic component
yāo, wò, wāi die young

Depicts a person walking quickly.

Meaning component
zhǐ (foot), stop

Depicts a foot.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsuwX[ts]ˤoʔ run

說文解字

《說文》:“走,趨也。从夭、止,夭止者,屈也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.108漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

shí time Simplified

Simplified form of .

Components

Meaning component
sun
Simplified component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Shorthand for the component in the traditional character .

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

shí time Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
sun
Sound component
sì, shì temple

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzyi[d]ə
(~ *[d]əʔ)
time

說文解字

《說文》:“時,四時也。从日,寺聲。旹,古文時,从之、日。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica