太师 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

tài, tai very

Addition of a dot to 大 (dà; big) to mean "very" or "extremely".

Components

dà, dài big

Change in sound

太 and 大 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
太 *l̥ˤa[t]-s
大 *lˤa[t]-s

丶 Distinguishing component

zhǔ dot

Character Evolution

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

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

态汰钛肽呔酞鈦

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	thajH	l̥ˤa[t]-s	great

說文解字

《說文》：“泰，滑也。从廾，从水，大聲。夳，古文泰。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.800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)

shī teacher Simplified

Simplified form of 師. 𠂤 and 帀 both represent the sound.

Components

刂 Simplified component

dāo knife

Shorthand for the 𠂤 component in the traditional character 師.

帀 Sound component

zā to go round

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

狮筛蛳浉

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.500-501
Readings & variants: Unicode

shī teacher Traditional

𠂤 and 帀 both represent the sound.

Components

𠂤 Sound component

duī mound

Change in sound

師 and 𠂤 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
師 *srij
𠂤 *C.tˤuj

帀 Sound component

zā to go round

Change in sound

師 and 帀 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
師 *srij
帀 *[ts]ˤ[ə]p

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	srij	srij	army
	srij	srij	master

說文解字

《說文》：“師，二千五百人為師。从帀，从。，四帀眾意也。，古文師。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.500-501
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

太 tài, tai very

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

师 shī teacher Simplified

Components

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

Sources

師 shī teacher Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Meaning (3)

Remnant (3)

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

tài, tai very

shī teacher Simplified

shī teacher Traditional