qū​yì

order about

spur a horse on Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components

Meaning component
horse
Sound component
area

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

service

Original meaning: to command

Originally written as , which depicts a person () being controlled by a weapon (). Based on the original meaning "to command". The meaning later shifted to "servant" and "service".

Components

Iconic component
rén person

Depicts a person. Modern form looks like unrelated .

Iconic component
shū weapon or tool

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 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

Component uses

Sound (1)

Remnant (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartywekɢʷek war expedition; service

說文解字

《說文》:“役,戍邊也。从殳,从彳。,古文役从人。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

spur a horse on Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
horse
Sound component
area

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 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-Sagartkhju[k]ʰ(r)odrive (horses) forward
Zhengzhangkʰo
kʰos
Unicodekio

說文解字

馬馳也。从馬區聲。

Sources

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