biǎn​dī

belittle

biǎn, fá decrease Simplified

To devalue  currency 

Components

Meaning component
bèi sea shell
Meaning component
lack

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

low

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
rén person

is a component form of .

SoundMeaning component
dī, dǐ, zhī bottom

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtiːl
Unicodedei
dei

說文解字

《說文新附》:“低,下也。从人、氐,氐亦聲。”

Sources

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

decrease Traditional

To devalue  currency 

Components

Meaning component
bèi sea shell
Meaning component
lack

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

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpjemXpr[e]mʔdiminish
pjemXp(r)[o]mʔdiminish
Zhengzhangpromʔ
Unicodebyɛ̌m

說文解字

損也。从貝从乏。

Sources

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