Phonosemantic compound. 舟 represents the meaning and 余 represents the sound. Original meaning unclear.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | yu | lo | yes, agree; satisfied, at ease |
說文解字
《說文》：“兪，空中木為舟也。从亼，从舟，从。，水也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 李学勤《字源》p.752
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: head
Depicts a person (大) with an emphasized head. Based on the original meaning "head". The meaning later shifted to "top", "high", and "sky".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | then | l̥ˤi[n] | heaven |
| xen | l̥ˤi[n] (W dialect: l̥ˤ- > Hàn-time *xˤ- > MC x-) | heaven |
說文解字
《說文》：“天，顛也。至高无上，从一、大。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.40-41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)
Origin unclear. Possibly depicts a thumb or a person's face.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | baek | bˤrak | white |
說文解字
《說文》：“白，西方色也。陰用事，物色白。从入合二。二，陰數。，古文白。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.625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)