吉
jíJí HSK6

lucky

← Back to history
approved by inralback19 · Jan 11, 2026, 03:17 AM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Jan 11, 2026, 04:22 AM

chabge

Changed fields: components

Original meaning: solid, difficult to break

Depicts a hook-shaped weapon made out of copper. Based on the original meaning "solid, difficult to break". The meaning later shifted to "good" and "lucky".

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component

Depicts a hook-shaped weapon made out of copper.

口
口 Distinguishing component

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkjitC.qi[t] (*C.q- > *k-, escaping palatalization)auspicious

說文解字

《說文》：“吉，善也。从士、口。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.98-99漢語多功能字庫林志強《《文源》評注》p.93-94
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)