即
jí HSK4

promptly

Original meaning: eat

Depicts a kneeling person (卩) eating from a container of food (皀). Based on the original meaning "eat". The meaning later shifted to "come near", "approach", and "quickly".

Components

皀
皀 Iconic component
jí, bī, xiāng one grain

Depicts a container of food.

卩
卩 Iconic component
jié person kneeling

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

唧鲫節鯽

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsik[ts]ik go to
tsik[ts]ik thereupon

說文解字

《說文》：“卽，即食也。从皀，卪聲。”

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)