尉
wèiyù

officer

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approved by Prismcool · Sep 25, 2023, 09:26 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Sep 25, 2023, 09:26 PM

Added etymology

Changed fields: hint, originalMeaning, isVerified, components, customSources, strokeDataSimp, fragmentsSimp, historicalImages

Original meaning: to iron

Depicts a hand (又) holding fire (火) to smoothen out fabric. Based on the original meaning "to iron", now written as 熨. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component

Depicts a piece of fabric.

火
火 Iconic component

Modern form looks like unrelated 小.

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

Depicts a hand.


Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 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 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 Chinese
Zhengzhangquds
qud
Unicodeqiuə̀i

說文解字

《說文》：“尉，从上案下也。从、又，持火以尉申繒也。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.893zi.tools
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)