Simplified
Simplified form of 韋. Pictograph of feet walking around city walls. The character is based on the original meaning "to surround". The "leather" meaning is a phonetic loan.
Depicts harvesting grain (禾) with a blade (刂). Harvest was the main source of profit in agricultural societies.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | lijH | C.ri[t]-s | sharp; profit |
說文解字
《說文》：“利，銛也。从刀；和然後利，从和省。《易》曰：‘利者，義之和也。’”
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)
Traditional
Original meaning: surround a city
Pictograph of feet walking around city walls. The character is based on the original meaning "to surround". The "leather" meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hjw+j | [ɢ]ʷə[j] | leather |
| hjw+j | [ɢ]ʷə[j] | go against |
說文解字
《說文》：“韋，相背也。从舛，囗聲。獸皮之韋可以束，枉戾相韋背，故借以為皮韋。，古文韋。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.476
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)