wait for

A person  waiting for something to finish  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
rén person
SoundMeaning component
yǐ, xián particle of completed action

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartzriXs-[ɢ]rəʔwait
zriXs.[ɢ]rəʔmove on
Zhengzhangsɢrɯʔ
ɡlɯl

說文解字

大也。从人矣聲。《詩》曰:“伾伾俟俟。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica