竊
qiè

secretly

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approved by maxkly19 · Aug 2, 2025, 10:23 AM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Aug 5, 2025, 06:03 AM

i guess technically the sound is similar because the earlier word just derives its sound from fanqie

Changed fields: components

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

穴
穴 Meaning component
米
米 Meaning component
禼
禼 Sound component

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttshet[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