Dong Chinese dictionary

xū

need

Original meaning:

become wet

Pictograph of a person standing under the rain (雨), representing the meaning "become wet", now written as 濡. The current meaning is a phonetic loan. The person component was later replaced with the phonetic component 而.

Components

雨 Iconic component

yǔ, yù

rain

而 Sound component

ér

and

需 and 而 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.需 /*s-no/
而 /*nə/

Evolution

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

需

xū

need, require, must; to require; to need; to want; necessity; need

Most common words with 需

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	需要	to need
	需求	requirement
	需	to need
	无需	needless
	急需	urgent need

Component uses

Sound component in 11 characters (1 verified)

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫

Original meaning:

Freq.

Word

Meaning