Depicts a flagpole. There is a circle in the middle marking the center of the flagpole. In older forms of the character, the flagpole has streamers at the top and bottom used to show the direction of the wind.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | trjuwng | truŋ | center |
| trjuwngH | truŋ-s | hit the center |
說文解字
《說文》：“中，內也。从口、丨，上下通。，古文中。，籀文中。”
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)
Original meaning: to iron
Depicts a hand (寸) holding two stones over fire (火) to iron a person's (尸) back as a treatment for a disease. Based on the original meaning "to iron", now written as 熨. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | quds | |
| qud | ||
| Unicode | qiuə̀i |
說文解字
《說文》：“尉，从上案下也。从、又，持火以尉申繒也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 林志強《《文源》評注》p.266黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.3200
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)