部位 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

bùwèi HSK5

part

bù part

Original meaning: place in Gansu province

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

Components

⻏ Meaning component

yì city

⻏ is a component form of 邑.

Change in meaning

⻏ hints at the original meaning of 部, "place in Gansu province", which is no longer the most common meaning of 部 in modern Mandarin.

咅 Sound component

pǒu to spit out

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	buwX	[b]ˤ(r)oʔ	lead (v.), govern

說文解字

天水狄部。从邑咅聲。

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)

wèi position

Depicts a person (亻) standing (立) in a specific position.

Components

亻 Iconic component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

立 Sound Iconic component

lì stand

立 also represents the sound.

Change in sound

位 and 立 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
位 *[ɢ]ʷrəp-s (< *ɢʷəʔ-rəp-s ?)
立 *k.rəp

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

莅

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

涖

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hwijH	[ɢ]ʷrəp-s (< *ɢʷəʔ-rəp-s ?)	standing, position

說文解字

《說文》：“位，列中庭之左右謂之位。从人、立。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫廣韻形聲考
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

部 bù part

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

位 wèi position

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

bù part

wèi position