元氏县 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

yuán first

Pictograph of a person with a line added at the head area, representing the meaning "head" or "first".

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (7 of 16 verified)

完远园玩冠顽阮沅髡鼋芫朊翫蚖黿頑

Iconic (2)

冠寇

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ngjwon	[ŋ]o[r] (< nasal + uvular)	head; first

說文解字

《說文》：“元，始也。从一，从兀。”

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)

shì clan

Pictograph of a tool similar to a hammer that is shaped like deer antlers. Original meaning unclear.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (4 of 8 verified)

纸衹舐芪祇哌紙秖

Iconic (1)

氐

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzyeX	k.deʔ	clan

說文解字

《說文》：“氏，巴蜀山名岸脅之旁箸欲落者曰氏。氏崩聲聞數百里。象形，乀聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.859-860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)

xiàn county Simplified

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Simplified form of 縣. Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend". The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Components

首 Iconic component

shǒu head

Depicts a severed head.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 首 than it was in ancient scripts.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 木 than it was in ancient scripts.

系 Deleted component

xì, xi, jì system

Depicts a rope. The traditional component 系 was removed for simplification.

Component uses

Sound (1)

悬

Iconic (1)

悬

Sources

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

xiàn county Traditional

Original meaning: suspend, hang

Pictograph of a severed head (首) hanging on a rope (系) from a tree (木). Based on the original meaning "hang" or "suspend", now written as 懸. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.