shuāi​mài

aged

shuāi decline

Original meaning: raincoat made from straw or grass

Depicts a woven raincoat () made from either grass or straw. Based on the original meaning "raincoat made from straw or grass", now written as . The meaning later shifted to "weaken" and "decline".

Components

Iconic component
clothes
Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts woven grass or straw.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Western Zhou 1045-771 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttshwoj[s.r̥]ˤruj mourning clothes
tsrhjwe[tsʰ]roj reduce
srwijsruj diminish, decline

說文解字

《說文》:“衰,艸雨衣。秦謂之萆。从衣象形。,古文衰。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.665-666zi.tools
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

mài take a big stride Simplified

To take ten thousand  steps 

Components

Meaning component
chuò walk
Meaning component
wàn ten thousand

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

mài take a big stride Traditional

To take ten thousand  steps 

Components

Meaning component
chuò walk
Meaning component
wàn ten thousand

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmæjHmˤrat-sproceed, march
Zhengzhangmraːds
Unicodemài

說文解字

遠行也。从辵,蠆省聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica