指挥棒 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

zhǐ, zhí, zhī finger

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 旨 represents the sound.

Components

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

旨 Sound component

zhǐ purpose

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyijX	mə.kijʔ	finger; point

說文解字

《說文》：“指，手指也。从手，旨聲。”

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)

huī wave, brandish Simplified

Simplified form of 揮. Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 军 represents the sound.

Components

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

军 Sound component

jūn army

Change in sound

挥 and 军 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
挥 *qʷʰər
军 *[k]ʷər

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

bàng stick

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 奉 represents the sound.

Components

木 Meaning component

mù tree

奉 Sound component

fèng offer

Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	broːŋʔ

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang

huī wave, brandish Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 軍 represents the sound.

Components

扌 Meaning component

shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

軍 Sound component

jūn army

Change in sound

揮 and 軍 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
揮 *qʷʰər
軍 *[k]ʷər

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Western Zhou 1045-771 BC

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	xjw+j	qʷʰər	wave, brandish

說文解字

《說文》：“揮，奮也。从手，軍聲。”

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)

指 zhǐ, zhí, zhī finger

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

挥 huī wave, brandish Simplified

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

棒 bàng stick

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

揮 huī wave, brandish Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

zhǐ, zhí, zhī finger

huī wave, brandish Simplified

bàng stick

huī wave, brandish Traditional