惜
xī HSK5

pity

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

Components

忄
忄 Meaning component
xin, xīn heart
昔
昔 Sound component
xī, cuò in the past, ancient times

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsjek[s]Ak regret; alas

說文解字

《說文》:“惜,痛也。从心,昔聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica