别
biébiè HSK1

separate

Simplified form of 別. Depicts a knife (刂) cutting meat off of a bone (另).

Components

另
另 Iconic component
lìng (bones), another

Depicts a bone.

刂
刂 Iconic component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

捌

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

捌

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangpred
bred

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

別 bié, biè separate Traditional

Depicts a knife (刂) cutting meat off of a bone （冎）.

Components

冎
冎 Iconic component
guǎ bone
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 冎 than it was in ancient scripts.
刂
刂 Iconic component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbjetN-pret be separated (intr.)
pjetpret separate (tr.)

說文解字

《說文》：“，分解也。从冎，从刀。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.336
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

彆 biè dissuade Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 弓 represents the meaning and 敝 represents the sound.

Components

弓
弓 Meaning component
gōng bow
敝
敝 Sound component
bì worn out

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangpeds
peːd

Sources

Character origin
Wiktionary
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang