丧妻
sàng​qī

widowed

丧 sàng mourning Simplified

Simplified form of 喪. Depicts multiple mouths (吅) wailing to mourn the death (亡) of someone. 桑 and 亡 represent the sound.

Components

桑
桑 Sound component
sāng mulberry tree
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 桑 than it was in ancient scripts.
吅
吅 IconicSimplified component
xuān, sòng noise

Depicts multiple mouths wailing.

亡
亡 SoundMeaning component
wáng death
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 亡 than it was in ancient scripts.

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.107漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

妻 qī wife

Pictograph of a hand grabbing a woman's hair to take her as a wife. In ancient China, women of marriageable age wore hairpins (compare with 每).

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a woman's hair.

又
又 Iconic component
yòu hand

Depicts a hand grabbing a woman's hair.

女
女 Iconic component
nǚ, nü woman

Character Evolution

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 Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

凄萋棲悽淒

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttshej[tsʰ]ˤəj consort, wife
tshejH[tsʰ]ˤəj-s give as wife

說文解字

《說文》：“妻，婦與夫齊者也。从女，从屮，从又。又，持事，妻職也。，古文妻从、女。，古文貴字。”

Sources

Character origin
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)

喪 sàng mourning Traditional

Depicts multiple mouths (吅) wailing to mourn the death (亡) of someone. 桑 and 亡 represent the sound.

Components

桑
桑 Sound component
sāng mulberry tree
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 桑 than it was in ancient scripts.
吅
吅 Iconic component
xuān, sòng noise

Depicts multiple mouths wailing.

亡
亡 SoundMeaning component
wáng death
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 亡 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsangs-mˤaŋ mourning, burial
sangHs-mˤaŋ-s lose; destroy

說文解字

《說文》：“喪，亡也。从哭，从亡，會意。亡亦聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.107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)