先烈 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

xiānliè

martyr

xiān first

Depicts a person (人) stepping forward (止) leading the way.

Components

止 Iconic component

zhǐ (foot), stop

Depicts a foot stepping forward.

Change in form

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

人 Iconic component

rén, ren person

Change in form

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (4 of 11 verified)

选洗宪酰诜铣跣冼筅銑兟

Meaning (1)

兟

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sen	sˤər	first
	senH	sˤər-s	go first

說文解字

《說文》：“先，前進也。从儿，从之。”

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)

liè fiery, intense

Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 列 represents the sound.

Components

列 Sound component

liè arrange

灬 Meaning component

biāo, huǒ fire

灬 is a component form of 火.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ljet	[r]at	blazing; brilliant

說文解字

《說文》：“烈，火猛也。从火，聲。”

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)

先 xiān first

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (4 of 11 verified)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

烈 liè fiery, intense

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

xiān first

liè fiery, intense