怩
ní

shy

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 尼 represents the sound.

Components

忄
忄 Meaning component
xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

尼
尼 Sound component
ní, nǐ Buddhist nun

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnrijnr[əj]ashamed
Zhengzhangnil

說文解字

衂怩，慙也。从心尼聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)