郑人买履 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

zhèngrénmǎilǚ

ancient allusion

zhèng state in today's Henan Simplified

Simplified form of 鄭. Phonosemantic compound. ⻏ represents the meaning and 奠 represents the sound.

Components

⻏ Meaning component

yì city

⻏ is a component form of 邑.

关 Simplified component

guān to close

Shorthand for the 奠 component in the traditional character 鄭.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

rén, ren person

Pictograph of the side view of a standing person.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

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

Bronze form — Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

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

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (4 of 5 verified)

队亮允佘仝

Sound (2 of 3 verified)

Simplified (1)

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nyin	ni[ŋ]	(other) person

說文解字

《說文》：“人，天地之性最貴者也。此籀文，象臂脛之形。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.630
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

mǎi buy Simplified

Pictograph of money (貝) coming out of a netted bag (网). The simplified character 买 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 買.

Components

网 Iconic Simplified component

wǎng net

头 Simplified component

tóu, tou head

Shorthand for the 貝 component in the traditional character 買. Shells were used as currency in ancient China.

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

Meaning (1)

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

lǚ to tread on, shoes

Depicts a person (頁) using their foot (夂) to tread. 眉 was later added to embellish the character and to represent the sound while a component that depicts a shoe was also later added to 夂 (foot) to emphasize another meaning "shoes". The component that depicts a shoe was later reanalyzed as meaning component 彳 (walk).

Components

眉 Sound Iconic Remnant component

méi eyebrows

Depicts an eyebrow.

Change in sound

履 and 眉 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
履 lijX
眉 mij

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 眉 than it was in ancient scripts.

彳 Meaning component

chì, fú walk

彳 is a component form of 行. Originally depicted a shoe.

頁 Iconic component

yè (head), page

Depicts a head on top of a person.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 頁 than it was in ancient scripts.

夂 Iconic component

zhǐ, zhōng go

夂 is a component form of 止. Depicts a foot.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 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

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Component uses

Meaning (1)

Remnant (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	lijX	[r]ijʔ	tread on; sandal

說文解字

《說文》：“履，足所依也。从尸，从彳，从攵，舟象履形。一曰尸聲。，古文履从頁，从足。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫 zi.tools季旭昇《說文新證》p.681-682Wiktionary
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

zhèng state in today's Henan Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. ⻏ represents the meaning and 奠 represents the sound.

Components

⻏ Meaning component

yì city

⻏ is a component form of 邑.

奠 Sound component

diàn pay respect

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	drjengH	[d]reŋ-s	Zhèng (a surname)
Zhengzhang		deŋs
Unicode	djiɛ̀ng

說文解字

京兆縣。周厲王子友所封。从邑奠聲。宗周之滅，鄭徙潧洧之上，今新鄭是也。

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

mǎi buy Traditional

Pictograph of money (貝) coming out of a netted bag (网).

Components

网 Iconic component

wǎng net

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 网 than it was in ancient scripts.

貝 Iconic component

bèi sea shell

Shells were used as currency in ancient China.

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	meaX	mˤrajʔ	buy

說文解字

《說文》：“買，市也。从网、貝。《孟子》曰：‘登壟斷而网市利。’”

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)