外围
wài​wéi

periphery

外 wài outside

Phonosemantic compound. 卜 represents the meaning and 月 represents the sound.

Components

卜
卜 Iconic component
bo fortune telling

Depicts the cracks on the outside of a turtle shell.

月
月 Sound component
yuè, yue moon

Looks like 夕, which is also a pictograph of a moon.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartngwajH[ŋ]ʷˤa[t]-s outside

說文解字

《說文》：“外，遠也。卜尚平旦，今夕卜，於事外矣。，古文外。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.555-556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)

围 wéi surround Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 囗 represents the meaning and 韦 represents the sound.

Components

囗
囗 Meaning component
wéi, guó surround
韦
韦 Sound component
wéi, huí tanned leather

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

涠

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

圍 wéi surround Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 囗 represents the meaning and 韋 represents the sound.

Components

囗
囗 Meaning component
wéi, guó surround
韋
韋 Sound component
(surround a city), tanned leather

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthjw+j[ɢ]ʷə[j] surround

說文解字

《說文》：“圍，守也。从囗，韋聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)