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Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD 
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC 
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD 
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD 
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD Regular Modern
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Changed fields: gloss, hint, originalMeaning, isVerified, components, customSources
Original meaning: gift of grain
Phonosemantic compound. 米 represents the meaning and 气 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "gift of grain", now written as 餼. The current meaning "air" is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | khj+jH | C.qʰəp-s | cloudy vapors |
| xj+jH | qʰət-s | to present food |
說文解字
《說文》：“氣，饋客芻米也。从米，气聲。《春秋傳》曰：‘齊人來氣諸矦。’，氣或从既；餼，氣或从食。”
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)