Simplified
Original meaning: dance
Pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. Original form of 舞 (dance). The current form is a phonetic loan. The simplified character 无 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 無.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mju | ma | not have |
說文解字
《說文》：“，亡也，从亡無聲；无，奇字无，通於元者，王育說：‘天屈西北為无。’”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.495
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: bear
Pictograph of a bear. Based on the original meaning "bear". The meaning of this character has shifted over time to mean "strong" and "ability, power". Original form of 熊.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | noj | nˤə | a kind of bear |
| nong | nˤə(ŋ) | a kind of bear | |
| nong | nˤə(ʔ) (~ *nˤəŋ) | able; ability |
說文解字
《說文》：“能，熊屬，足似鹿。从肉，聲。能獸堅中，故稱賢能，而彊壯稱能傑也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.752
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Simplified
Pictograph of a plow, which requires strength to operate.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | lik | k.rək | strength |
說文解字
《說文》：“力，筋也。象人筋之形。治功曰力，能圉大災。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.918-919
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Original meaning: dance
Pictograph of a person dancing, with ox tails or bird feathers hanging from his arms, to pray for rain. Original form of 舞 (dance). The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mju | ma | not have |
| mju | ma | volitional prefix | |
| mju | mo | don’t |
說文解字
《說文》：“，豐也。从林、。或說規模字。从大；，數之積也；林者，木之多也。與庶同意。《商書》曰：｀庶草繁無’。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.495
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Originally written as 爲, which depicts a hand (又) guiding an elephant (象) to do work (in ancient China elephants were tamed to do work). Based on the meaning "to work; to do".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (0 of 1 verified)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hjwe | ɢʷ(r)aj | make, do, act as |
| hjweH | ɢʷ(r)aj-s | for, because |
說文解字
《說文》：“爲，母猴也，其爲禽好爪，爪，母猴象也；下腹爲母猴形。王育曰：‘爪，象形也。’，古文爲，象兩母猴相對形。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.194
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)