Depicts a hand (又) holding meat (肉). In Oracle script this character was written the same as the phonetically similar 又, but later the 肉 component was added to distinguish them.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hjuwX | [ɢ]ʷəʔ | have, exist |
說文解字
《說文》：“有，不宜有也。《春秋傳》曰：‘日月有食之。’从月，又聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.550
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: elder sister
Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 台 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "elder sister", now written as 姒. The meaning later shifted to "first" and "start".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | syiX | l̥əʔ | begin |
說文解字
《說文》：“始，女之初也。从女，台聲。”
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)
Simplified
Components
說文解字
龜名。从龜夂聲。夂，古文終字。
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsyuwng | tuŋ | end |
說文解字
《說文》：“終，絿絲也。从糸，冬聲。，古文終。”
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)