Depicts a breath of air going into the nose (自). The lines representing breath were later reanalyzed as 心 (heart).
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sik | sək | breathe |
| sik | sək | 安息 Ānxī (Iranian country in the western regions, W. Hàn; from Aršaka = Arsaces, founder of the Arsacid dynasty) |
說文解字
《說文》：“息，喘也。从心，从自，自亦聲。”
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)
Original meaning: rope
Pictograph of a rope with four dots representing bits of threads. Based on the original meaning "rope". The meaning later shifted to "lead", "follow", "standard", "rate", and "frequency".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | lwijH | [r]ut-s | bird net |
| lwit | [r]ut | norm, standard | |
| srwijH | s-rut-s | lead (v.); commander | |
| srwit | s-rut | follow, go along |
說文解字
《說文》：“率，捕鳥畢也。象絲罔。上下其竿柄也。”
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)