The characters 史 (history), 吏 (government official), 使 (cause; use; instruct), and 事 (matter; work; affair) are all etymologically related and all derive from the same ancient character, depicting a hand (又) holding a container for writing utensils.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sriX | s-rəʔ | scribe |
說文解字
《說文》：“史，記事者也。从又持中；中，正也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.213-214
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Simplified
Original meaning: dance
Pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. Original form of 舞 (dance). The current form is a phonetic loan. The simplified character 无 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 無.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mju | ma | not have |
說文解字
《說文》：“，亡也，从亡無聲；无，奇字无，通於元者，王育說：‘天屈西北為无。’”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.495
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: cut
Phonosemantic compound. 歬 represents the sound, and 刂 represents the meaning. Based on the original meaning "cut", now written as 剪. The current meaning "in front" is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzen | [dz]ˤen (~ *m-dzˤen) | before |
說文解字
《說文》：“歬，不行而進謂之歬。从止在舟上。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫The Outlier Linguistics Dictionary of Chinese Characters
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Old Chinese | |
|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | reds |
說文解字
《說文》：“例，比也。从人，聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Original meaning: dance
Pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. Original form of 舞 (dance). The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mju | ma | not have |
| mju | ma | volitional prefix | |
| mju | mo | don’t |
說文解字
《說文》：“，豐也。从林、。或說規模字。从大；，數之積也；林者，木之多也。與庶同意。《商書》曰：｀庶草繁無’。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.495
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)