Original meaning: to steal rice
Phonosemantic compound. 穴 represents the meaning and 切 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "to steal rice". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "secretly". Simplified form of 竊.
Components
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
Traditional
Original meaning: to steal rice
Phonosemantic compound. 穴 represents the meaning and 䊪 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "to steal rice". The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "secretly".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tshet | [tsʰ]ˤet | steal |
說文解字
《說文》：“竊，盜自中出曰竊。从穴、从米，、廿皆聲。廿，古文疾；，古文偰。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 李学勤《字源》p.648季旭昇《說文新證》p.580-581
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)