yá​yì

bailiff

public office

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
xíng, háng walk
Sound component
wú, yú, yá I, me

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangŋraː
ŋa
ŋaʔ

說文解字

行皃。从行吾聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

service

Original meaning: to command

Originally written as , which depicts a person () being controlled by a weapon (). Based on the original meaning "to command". The meaning later shifted to "servant" and "service".

Components

Iconic component
rén person

Depicts a person. Modern form looks like unrelated .

Iconic component
shū weapon or tool

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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)

Remnant (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartywekɢʷek war expedition; service

說文解字

《說文》:“役,戍邊也。从殳,从彳。,古文役从人。”

Sources

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