𠩺
xī

to split

Original meaning: to harvest wheat

Depicts a person (人) carrying wheat (來) while using their hand to hit (攵) it. Based on the original meaning "to harvest wheat". The meaning later shifted to "crack" and "to split".

Components

來
來 Iconic component
lái come

Depicts a stalk of wheat.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 來 than it was in ancient scripts.
攵
攵 Iconic component
pū tap

Depicts a hand holding a hitting implement.

人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.

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
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2)

嫠釐

Meaning (1)

釐

Unknown (1)

氂

說文解字

《說文》：“，坼也。从攴，从厂。厂之性坼，果孰有味亦坼，故謂之。从未聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.245
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)