Depicts harvesting grain (禾) with a blade (刂). Harvest was the main source of profit in agricultural societies.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | lijH | C.ri[t]-s | sharp; profit |
說文解字
《說文》：“利，銛也。从刀；和然後利，从和省。《易》曰：‘利者，義之和也。’”
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)
Origin unclear. Possibly a pictograph of a silk rope, in which case would be the original form of 紀.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kiX | k(r)əʔ | 6th heavenly stem |
| kiX | k(r)əʔ | self |
說文解字
《說文》：“己，中宮也，象萬物辟藏詘形也。己承戊，象人腹，，古文己。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.964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)