保湿 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

Chinese Character Wiki Wiki

bǎoshī

moisturize

bǎo protect

Depicts a person carrying a child on their back.

Components

亻 Iconic component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

子 Iconic component

zi, zǐ child

Depicts a child being carried.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 子 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

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~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 Mid Spring and Autumn ~600 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

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 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

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

堡褒葆煲褓

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pawX	pˤuʔ	protect

說文解字

《說文》：“保，養也。从人，从省。，古文孚。，古文保。，古文保不省。”

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)

shī wet Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 显 represents the sound. Simplified form of 濕.

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

显 Sound component

xiǎn evident, make visible, clear

Change in sound

湿 and 显 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

shī wet Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 㬎 represents the sound.

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

water

㬎 Sound component

xiǎn visible, bright

Change in sound

濕 and 㬎 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
濕 *[qʰ]ip
㬎 *qʰˤenʔ

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 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

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	syip	[qʰ]ip	to flap (sc. the ears)

說文解字

《說文》：“濕，水。出東郡東武陽，入海。从水，聲。桑欽云：出平原高唐。”

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)