夬
guài

parted

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approved by Peter Olson · Dec 22, 2020, 08:27 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Dec 22, 2020, 08:27 AM

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Original meaning: thumb ring

Depicts a hand (又) wearing a thumb ring. Thumb rings are typically used for archery to protect the archer's thumb when pulling back on the bowstring. Based on the original meaning "thumb ring". The meaning later shifted to "parted".

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a thumb ring.

又
又 Iconic component
yòu hand

Depicts a hand.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkwaejH[k]ʷˤret-s divide, make a breach

說文解字

《說文》：“夬，分決也。从又；，象決形。”

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)