Original meaning: area
Depicts using a weapon (戈) to defend an area (囗) in a boundary (一). Based on the original meaning "area", now written as 域. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hwok | [ɢ]ʷˤək | some; or |
| hwik | [ɢ]ʷrək | territory |
說文解字
《說文》：“或，邦也。从囗，从戈以守一。一，地也。域，或又从土。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.864黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.40
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Simplified
Traditional
Original meaning: measure weight
Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the meaning and 爯 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "measure weight". The meaning later shifted to "lift", "raise", "praise", "reputation", and "call".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsyhing | tʰəŋ | weigh; evaluate; call |
| tsyhingH | mə-tʰəŋ-s | steelyard |
說文解字
《說文》：“稱，銓也。从禾，爯聲。春分而禾生，日夏至晷景可度，禾有秒，秋分而秒定。律數十二，秒而當一分，十分而寸。其以為重，十二粟為一分，十二分為一銖。故諸程品皆从禾。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫Wiktionary
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)