细察 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

xì thin, fine Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 纟 represents the meaning and 囟 represents the sound. Simplified form of 細.

Components

纟 Meaning component

mì silk

纟 is a component form of 糸.

囟 Sound component

xìn fontanel

Modern form looks like 田.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 囟 than it was in ancient scripts.

說文解字

耕也。从土豤聲。

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

chá examine

Original meaning: eaves

Phonosemantic compound. 宀 represents the meaning and 祭 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "eaves". The meaning later shifted to "observe from above", "examine", and "inspect".

Components

宀 Meaning component

mián roof

Change in meaning

宀 hints at the original meaning of 察, "eaves", which is no longer the most common meaning of 察 in modern Mandarin.

祭 Sound component

jì, zhài sacrifice to

Change in sound

察 and 祭 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
察 tsrheat
祭 tsreajH

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

擦嚓檫镲鑔

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsrheat	[tsʰ]ˤret	examine

說文解字

《說文》：“察，覆也。从宀、祭。”

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)

xì thin, fine Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 糹 represents the meaning and 囟 represents the sound.

Components

糹 Meaning component

mì silk

糹 is a component form of 糸.

囟 Sound component

xìn fontanel

Modern form looks like 田.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 囟 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sejH	[s]ˤe(k)-s	small, minute

說文解字

《說文》：“細，微也。从糸，囟聲。”

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)

细 xì thin, fine Simplified

Components

說文解字

Sources

察 chá examine

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

細 xì thin, fine Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

xì thin, fine Simplified

chá examine

xì thin, fine Traditional