a Chinese family name

Original meaning: to look from side to side

Depicts a pair of eyes looking from side to side.

Components

Iconic component
eye

Depicts one eye.

Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "to look from side to side", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.
Depicts another eye.
Change in meaning
Depicts another eye. hints at the original meaning of , "to look from side to side", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjuH[k]ʷ(r)a-s look right and left

說文解字

《說文》:“,左右視也。从二目。讀若拘,又若良士瞿瞿。”

Sources

Character origin
https://dict.variants.moe.edu.tw/dictView.jsp?ID=94112#
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica