Phonosemantic compound. ⺮ represents the meaning and 寺 represents the sound.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tongX | tˤəŋʔ | step, grade |
說文解字
《說文》：“等，齊簡也。从竹，从寺。寺，官曹之等平也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫Wiktionary
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: to carve jade
Depicts a carved jade object, now written as 彫/琱. The meaning later shifted to "circumference" and "cycle". Later the 口 component was added when 周 was used to refer to a geographical region to indicate that the character was only "mouthed", i.e. used for its sound. In simplified Chinese 周 is also used to mean "week", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 週.
Components
口 Distinguishing component
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsyuw | tiw | Zhōu (dynasty and place) |
| tsyuw | tiw | cycle; all around |
說文解字
《說文》：“周，密也。从用、口。，古文周字从古文及。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.99-100林志強《《文源》評注》p.134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: sepals
Pictograph of sepals of a flower. The modern meaning "no" is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | pjuw | pə | not |
| pjuw | pə | 不律 writing brush (pron. in Wú 吳 ap. Shuōwén; E. Hàn) |
說文解字
《說文》：“不，鳥飛上翔不下來也。从一，一猶天也。象形。”
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)
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | syik | l̥ək | pattern |
| syik | l̥ək | to wipe |
說文解字
《說文》：“式，法也。从工，弋聲。”
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)