隶
lì HSK7

subservient

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approved by Prismcool · Mar 6, 2026, 07:55 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Mar 6, 2026, 07:55 PM

Changed entry a little

Changed fields: hint, components, customSources

Original meaning: catch from behind

Depicts a hand (又) grabbing a tail (尾) from behind. Based on the original meaning "catch from behind", now written as 逮. In simplified Chinese 隶 is also used to mean "subservient", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 隸.

Components

又
又 Iconic component
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 又 than it was in ancient scripts.
尾
尾 Iconic component

Derived from the pictographic form of 尾 (tail).

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdojHm-rˤəp-s reach to

說文解字

《說文》：“隶，及也。从又，从省。又持者，从後及之也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.221-222
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)