怯羞

怯 qiè lacking in courage

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 去 represents the sound.

Components

忄
忄 Meaning component
xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

去
去 Sound component
qù go away

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkʰab
Unicodekiæp

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

羞 xiū shy, ashamed

Original meaning: offer a delicacy

Depicts a hand (丑) holding sheep meat (羊). Based on the original meaning "offer a delicacy", now written as 饈. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

羊
羊 Iconic component
yáng sheep
丑
丑 SoundIconic component
chǒu second earthly branch; (simp.) ugly

Depicts a hand.


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 Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2)

馐饈

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsjuws-nu shame

說文解字

《說文》：“羞，進獻也。从羊，羊所進也；从丑，丑亦聲。”

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)