Original meaning: leisure; carefree
Depicts a person with their hair loose. Based on the original meaning "leisure; carefree", now written as 佚. The meaning later shifted to "lose" and "fail".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | syit | l̥i[t] | lose |
說文解字
《說文》：“失，縱也。从手，乙聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 何景成《甲骨文字詁林補編》p.26黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.3349
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Simplified
Original meaning: attack
Simplified character from the top 5 strokes of the traditional 業. Depicts a person (大) carrying a weapon (丵). Based on the original meaning "attack". The meaning later shifted to "expand territory" and "develop business".
Components
Component uses
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.168-169Chinese Language Stack Exchange
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
Traditional
Original meaning: attack
Depicts a person (大) carrying a weapon (丵). Based on the original meaning "attack". The meaning later shifted to "expand territory" and "develop business".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ngjaep | [m-qʰ](r)[a]p | work (n.) |
| ngjaep | [m-qʰ](r)[a]p | horizontal board of a bell stand or frame | |
| ngjaep | [ŋ](r)[a]p | strong, sturdy |
說文解字
《說文》：“業，大版也，所以飾縣鍾鼓，捷業如鋸齒，以白畫之，象其鉏鋙相承也。从丵，从巾，巾象版。《詩》曰：‘巨業維樅。’，古文業。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.168-169Chinese Stack Exchange
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)