Original meaning: waist
Pictograph of two hands grabbing a woman's (女) waist. The current meaning "want" is a phonetic loan. The original meaning "waist" is now written as 腰.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'jiewH | [q]ew(k)-s | important |
說文解字
《說文》：“要，身中也，象人要自之形。从，交省聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.183
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Depicts two hands (廾) stuffing various objects (工) into an enclosed space (宀). The 土 (earth) component was added later.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sojH | [s]ˤək-s | frontier |
| sojH | [s]ˤək-s | pass (n.) | |
| sok | [s]ˤək | stop up, block (v.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“塞，隔也。从土，从。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1189-1190
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)