各尽所能 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

gè each

Original meaning: arrive

Depicts a foot (夂) arriving at an entrance (口). Based on the original meaning "arrive". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

夂 Iconic component

zhǐ, zhōng go

夂 is a component form of 止, which depicts a foot.

口 Iconic component

kǒu, kou mouth

Depicts an entrance.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (7 of 27 verified)

路格客略洛络阁胳咯骆烙骼恪酪铬珞貉硌袼辂絡饹閣賂餎鉻駱 show all 27 show fewer

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kak	kˤak	each

說文解字

《說文》：“各，異辭也。从口、夂。夂者，有行而止之，不相聽也。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.100-101
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

jǐn, jìn utmost Simplified

Simplified form of 盡. Depicts a hand (又) using a brush to scrub dishes (皿) clean after one is finished eating. The simplified character 尽 was derived from the cursive form of 盡.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

烬荩赆

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

烬

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

suǒ place

Origin unclear. 戶 represents the sound.

Components

戶 Sound component

hù, hu door

Change in sound

所 and 戶 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
所 xuX
戶 huX

斤 Meaning component

jīn axe

The original purpose of this component is unclear.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	srjoX	s-qʰ<r>aʔ	place (n.); that which
	xuX	qʰaʔ	所所 = 許許 = 滸滸 sound of hewing wood

說文解字

《說文》：“所，伐木聲也。从斤，戶聲。”

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)

néng to be able

Original meaning: bear

Pictograph of a bear. Based on the original meaning "bear". The meaning of this character has shifted over time to mean "strong" and "ability, power". Original form of 熊.