支部 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

zhībù

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

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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)

bù part

Original meaning: place in Gansu province

Phonosemantic compound. ⻏ represents the meaning and 咅 represents the sound.

Components

⻏ Meaning component

yì city

⻏ is a component form of 邑.

Change in meaning

⻏ hints at the original meaning of 部, "place in Gansu province", which is no longer the most common meaning of 部 in modern Mandarin.

咅 Sound component

pǒu to spit out

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	buwX	[b]ˤ(r)oʔ	lead (v.), govern

說文解字

天水狄部。从邑咅聲。

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)

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

部 bù part

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

zhī support, hold up

bù part