巳
sì

6th terrestrial branch

Original meaning: a type of snake creature

Depicts a snake-like creature. Based on the original meaning "a type of snake creature". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

祀汜圯巸

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartziXs-[ɢ]əʔ 6th earthly branch

說文解字

《說文》：“巳，巳也，四月陽气巳出，陰气巳藏，萬物見，成文章，故巳為蛇。象形。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.979
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)