贵
guì HSK1

expensive

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approved by Peter Olson · Feb 19, 2022, 06:03 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Feb 19, 2022, 06:03 PM

貴

Phonosemantic compound. 贝 represents the meaning and 㬰 represents the sound. Simplified form of 貴.

Components

㬰
㬰 Sound component
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 㬰 than it was in ancient scripts.
贝
贝 Meaning component

Depicts a shell, used as currency in ancient China.

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.525-526
Readings & variants
Unicode