巳
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
| ||||||||
| ||||||||
Translingual
| Stroke order | |||
|---|---|---|---|
 | |||
Han character
巳 (Kangxi radical 49, 己+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 口山 (RU), four-corner 77717, composition ⿺乚コ)
Derived characters
- Appendix:Chinese radical/己
- 包 (Chinese form)
- 导
References
- Kangxi Dictionary: page 326, character 12
- Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 8744
- Dae Jaweon: page 631, character 1
- Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 984, character 2
- Unihan data for U+5DF3
Chinese
Glyph origin
| Historical forms of the character 巳 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Shang | Western Zhou | Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) | Liushutong (compiled in Ming) |
| Oracle bone script | Bronze inscriptions | Small seal script | Transcribed ancient scripts |
 |
 |
 |
 |
Two different theories:
- Pictogram (象形) of a fetus (it can be seen in 包, 胞. In 包, the radical should represent the placenta. 胞 today means "cell").
- Pictogram (象形) of a snake (therefore, it should be similar to 巴). This theory is found in the Shuowen Jiezi, which however is not based on oracle bones versions of characters.
The character is similar to 已, which cannot be found in the Shuowen Jiezi.
Etymology 1
巳 (OC s-ləʔ) displaced 子 (OC tsəʔ), the original sixth earthly branch which denoted the moon's "coming forth" stage (i.e. early waning-gibbous phase) "due to phonological closeness (combined with the semantic opacity of the Branch terms at later eras)" (Smith, 2011).
Association with the snake was possibly arbitrary, analogous to how 辰, the fifth earthly branch, was arbitrarily associated with the dragon (Ferlus, 2013).
Pronunciation
- Mandarin
- Cantonese (Jyutping): zi6
- Hakka
- Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): si5
- Southern Min
- Wu (Shanghai, Wugniu): 6zy
- Mandarin
- (Standard Chinese)+
- Hanyu Pinyin:
- Zhuyin: ㄙˋ
- Tongyong Pinyin: sìh
- Wade–Giles: ssŭ4
- Yale: sz̀
- Gwoyeu Romatzyh: syh
- Palladius: сы (sy)
- Sinological IPA (key): /sz̩⁵¹/
- (Standard Chinese)+
- Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
- Jyutping: zi6
- Yale: jih
- Cantonese Pinyin: dzi6
- Guangdong Romanization: ji6
- Sinological IPA (key): /t͡siː²²/
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)
- Hakka
- (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Neipu)
- Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: sṳ
- Hakka Romanization System: sii
- Hagfa Pinyim: si4
- Sinological IPA: /sɨ⁵⁵/
- (Hailu, incl. Zhudong)
- Hakka Romanization System: sii˖
- Sinological IPA: /sɨ³³/
- (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Neipu)
- Puxian Min
- (Putian, Xianyou)
- Pouseng Ping'ing: si5
- Sinological IPA (key): /ɬi²¹/
- (Putian, Xianyou)
- Southern Min
- (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
- Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sǐr
- Tâi-lô: sǐr
- IPA (Quanzhou): /sɯ²²/
- (Hokkien: Xiamen, General Taiwanese)
- Pe̍h-ōe-jī: sū
- Tâi-lô: sū
- Phofsit Daibuun: su
- IPA (Taipei, Kaohsiung): /su³³/
- IPA (Xiamen): /su²²/
- (Hokkien: General Taiwanese, Zhangzhou)
- Pe̍h-ōe-jī: chī
- Tâi-lô: tsī
- Phofsit Daibuun: ci
- IPA (Zhangzhou): /t͡si²²/
- IPA (Taipei, Kaohsiung): /t͡si³³/
- (Hokkien: Quanzhou)
Note: chī - vernacular, sū - literary.
- Middle Chinese: ziX
- Old Chinese
- (Baxter–Sagart): /*s-[ɢ]əʔ/
- (Zhengzhang): /*ljɯʔ/
Definitions
巳
- sixth of twelve earthly branches (十二支)
- snake (蛇) of Chinese zodiac
Coordinate terms
Compounds
References
- (Min Nan) “巳”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.
Etymology 2
| For pronunciation and definitions of 巳 – see 已 (“to stop; to finish; already; have done something; etc.”). (This character is a variant form of 已). |
Japanese
Korean
Vietnamese
Wikiwand in your browser!
Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.
Every time you click a link to Wikipedia, Wiktionary or Wikiquote in your browser's search results, it will show the modern Wikiwand interface.
Wikiwand extension is a five stars, simple, with minimum permission required to keep your browsing private, safe and transparent.