Hú Shì

Hu Shi

beard

Original meaning: flesh under the chin of a cow

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "flesh under the chin of a cow", which later shifted to "beard" (now written as in traditional characters). Also used pejoratively to refer to foreigners from central Asia, who tended to have more beards than Han Chinese people. This meaning also shifted to "reckless" and "outrageous".

Components

Sound component
old
Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of .

Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "flesh under the chin of a cow", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 13 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[g]ˤa foreigners in the north

說文解字

《說文》:“胡,牛垂也。从肉,古聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

shì suitable, to fit Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Simplified form of .

Components

Meaning component
chuò walk

is a component form of .

Sound component
shé tongue

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkoːd
kʰoːd

說文解字

《說文》:“,疾也。从辵,聲。讀與括同。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

shì suitable, to fit Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
chuò walk

is a component form of .

Sound component
chì, dì only

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsyeks-tek scared
syeks-tek go to
tsyektek go to

說文解字

之也。从辵啻聲。適,宋魯語。

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica