细说 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)

shuō speak Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 讠 represents the meaning and 兑 represents the sound.

Components

讠 Meaning component

yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言.

兑 Sound component

duì, ruì, duó exchange

Change in sound

说 and 兑 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
说 *l̥ot-s
兑 *lˤot-s

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

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

Seal form — Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

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)

shuō speak Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 兌 represents the sound.

Components

言 Meaning component

yán speech

兌 Sound component

exchange

Change in sound

說 and 兌 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
說 *l̥ot-s
兌 *lˤot-s

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

《說文》：“說，說釋也。从言、兌。一曰談說。”

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

细 xì thin, fine Simplified

Components

說文解字

Sources

说 shuō speak Simplified

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

細 xì thin, fine Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

說 shuō speak Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

xì thin, fine Simplified

shuō speak Simplified

xì thin, fine Traditional

shuō speak Traditional