半
bàn HSK1

half

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approved by Peter Olson · Feb 12, 2021, 09:56 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Feb 12, 2021, 09:56 AM

form note

Changed fields: components

Depicts separating a cow (牛) into two halves (八).

Components

八
八 Iconic component

Depicts splitting into two halves.

牛
牛 Iconic component
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 牛 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpanHpˤan-s half

說文解字

《說文》：“半，物中分也。从八，从牛。牛為物大，可以分也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.89-90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)