Original meaning: to think
Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 隹 represents the sound. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (0 of 1 verified)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ywij | ɢʷij | (copula); namely |
說文解字
《說文》：“惟，凡思也。从心，隹聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 李学勤《字源》p.932
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mjiewH | [m]ew(ʔ)-s | marvelous |
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
Original meaning: decrease, disappear
Depicts the moon (月) getting smaller (小) and disappearing as part of the lunar cycle. Based on the original meaning "decrease, disappear", now written as 消. The meaning later shifted to "resemble; similar".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sjew | [s]ew | disappear |
| sjewH | [s]ew-s | resemble |
說文解字
《說文》：“肖，骨肉相似也。从肉，小聲。不似其先故曰不肖也。”
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)