御
yù HSK7

to govern, to resist

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approved by Prismcool · May 5, 2024, 10:43 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on May 5, 2024, 10:43 PM

Reworded etymology

Changed fields: hint, originalMeaning, components, customSources, strokeDataSimp, fragmentsSimp, historicalImages

Original meaning: to use, to control

Depicts a person (卩) using a pestle (午). 午 also represents the sound. The 辵 (walk) component was later added to emphasize action. Based on the original meaning, “to use, to control”. The meaning later shifted to “to govern”. In simplified Chinese 御 is also used to mean "to resist", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 禦.

Components

午
午 SoundIconic component

Depicts a pestle.

Change in sound
卩
卩 Iconic component

Depicts a kneeling person.

辵
辵 Meaning component
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 辵 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
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 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 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartngjoXm-[qʰ](r)aʔ ward off; withstand
ngjoH[ŋ](r)a-s drive a chariot (loan)

說文解字

《說文》：“御，使馬也。从彳，从卸。馭，古文御。从又，从馬。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.132-133zi.tools漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)