刷
shuā HSK4

brush

Depicts a person squatting (尸) and holding a utensil (刂 ) attached to a cloth (巾) to scrub or clean something.

Components

尸
尸 Iconic component
shī sitting person

Depicts a person squatting.

巾
巾 Iconic component
jīn cloth
刂
刂 Iconic component
dāo knife

Used here to depict a utensil held in the hand. The variant character 㕞 used the 又 (hand) component instad.


Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsrjwet[s]r[o]t (dialect: retains MC srj-)brush (v.)
srwaet[s]r[o]t brush (v.)

說文解字

《說文》:“刷,刮也。从刀,省聲。《禮》:‘布刷巾。’”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica