Simplified
Pictograph of a mouth on top of a person, representing an older brother giving orders.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | xjwaeng | m̥raŋ | elder brother |
說文解字
《說文》：“兄，長也。从儿，从口。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Original meaning: order
Pictograph of a rope neatly wrapped around a weapon handle. Based on the original meaning "orderly". The meaning later shifted to "next in sequence" (now written as 第) and "younger brother".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dejX | lˤəjʔ | younger brother |
說文解字
《說文》：“弟，韋束之次弟也。从古字之象。，古文弟，从古文韋省，丿聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.477-478漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Original meaning: type of bird
Phonosemantic compound. 隹 represents the meaning and 𦰩 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "type of bird". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nan | nˤar | difficult |
| nanH | nˤar-s | difficulty |
說文解字
《說文》：“，鳥也。从鳥，堇聲。難，或从隹。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)