Originally written the same as 不, depicting the sepals of a flower. 一 was later added to 丕 to distinguish it from 不. The meaning "great" is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | phij | pʰrə | great |
說文解字
《說文》：“丕，大也。从一，不聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.41-42
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)