Original meaning: finish eating
Depicts a person, who is full, turning away (旡) from a container of food (皀). Based on the original meaning "finish eating". The meaning later shifted to "complete" and "already".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kj+jH | [k]ə[t]-s | complete (v.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“旣，小食也。从皀，旡聲。《論語》曰：‘不使勝食旣。’”
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)
Original meaning: beard
Originally a pictograph of a beard, now written as 耏. The current use as a conjunction is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nyi | nə | and, but |
說文解字
《說文》：“而，頰毛也。象毛之形。《周禮》曰：‘作其鱗之而。’”
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)