shī

lose

Original meaning: 

leisure; carefree

Depicts a person with their hair loose. Based on the original meaning "leisure; carefree", now written as . The meaning later shifted to "lose" and "fail".

Evolution

失 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
失 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
失 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
失 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

shī

lose; make mistake, neglect; to lose; to miss; to fail

Most common words with 失
Freq.
Word
Meaning

失去

to lose

消失

to disappear

失败

to lose

失望

disappointed

损失

loss

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (1 verified)

Sound component in 11 characters (2 verified)

Sources

何景成《甲骨文字詁林補編》p.26

黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.3349