ancient barbarian tribes

Original meaning: 

level

Originally depicted a rope wrapped around an arrow. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Evolution

夷 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
夷 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
夷 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

ancient barbarian tribes; non-Han people, esp. to the East of China; barbarians; to wipe out; to exterminate; to tear down; to raze

Most common words with 夷
Freq.
Word
Meaning

夏威夷

Hawaii, US state

barbarians

匪夷所思

unimaginable

夷为平地

to level

武夷山

Mt Wuyi in Fujian

Component uses

Sound component in 5 characters (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*ləj

yij

level, peaceful

*ləj

yij

foreigner (especially to the east)


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 5.8305% of movies

2141st most common character in movies

2337th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

6

Unicode

U+5937

Shuowen

“夷,平也。从大,从弓。東方之人也。”


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