支系 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

zhīxì

branch

zhī support, hold up

Pictograph of a hand (又) lifting a piece of bamboo (个).

Components

个 Iconic component

gè, ge, gě [measure word]

Depicts a piece of bamboo.

又 Iconic component

yòu hand

Depicts a hand.

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsye	ke	support, hold up
	tsye	ke	branch (of tree), limb

說文解字

《說文》：“支，去竹之枝也。从手持半竹。，古文支。”

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)

xì, xi, jì system

Pictograph of a hand (又) holding a group of threads (糸) that are connected together (系).

Components

又 Iconic component

yòu hand

Depicts a hand.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 又 than it was in ancient scripts.

糸 Iconic component

mì, sī silk

Depicts a group of threads.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Meaning (1 of 3 verified)

繇纛孫

Iconic (2)

縣係

Deleted (1)

县

Sound (1)

係

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hejH	[m]-kˤek-s	bind (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“系，繫也。从糸，丿聲。，系或从、處。，籀文系从爪、絲。”

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)

支 zhī support, hold up

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (3 of 14 verified)

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

系 xì, xi, jì system

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Meaning (1 of 3 verified)

Iconic (2)

Deleted (1)

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

zhī support, hold up

xì, xi, jì system