逆喻
nì​yù

oxymoron

逆 nì disobey

Originally written as 屰, a pictograph of an upside-down person. The 辶 (walk) component was added later, representing a person walking in the wrong direction.

Components

屰
屰 SoundMeaning component
nì, pò, jí disobedient
辶
辶 Meaning component
chuò walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngjaekŋrak go against

說文解字

《說文》：“逆，迎也。从辵，屰聲。關東曰逆，關西曰迎。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.147-148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)

喻 yù, yú metaphor

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 俞 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
俞
俞 Sound component
yú, shù surname

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartyuHlo-sunderstand; metaphor
Zhengzhanglos
Unicodeiò

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica