Pictograph of a head (hair above a face with an eye).
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | syuwX | l̥uʔ | head |
| syuwH | l̥uʔ-s | turn the head towards |
說文解字
《說文》：“首，同，古文也。巛象髮，謂之鬊，鬊即巛也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.700
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: to hold in arms
Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 壬 represents the sound.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nyimH | n[ə]m-s | burden; charge (n.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“任，符也。从人，壬聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫The Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)