Chinese Character Wiki
履

lǚ

to tread on, shoes

Depicts a person (頁) using their foot (夂) to tread. 眉 was later added to embellish the character and to represent the sound while a component that depicts a shoe was also later added to 夂 (foot) to emphasize another meaning "shoes". The component that depicts a shoe was later reanalyzed as meaning component 彳 (walk).

Components
眉 sound,iconic,remnant component

眉  Sound Iconic Remnant component

méi

  

eyebrows

Depicts an eyebrow.

彳 meaning component

彳  Meaning component

chì

  

walk

彳 is a component form of 行. Originally depicted a shoe.

頁 iconic component

頁  Iconic component

yè, xié

  

(head), page

Depicts a head on top of a person.

夂 iconic component

夂  Iconic component

zhǐ

  

go

夂 is a component form of 止. Depicts a foot.

Evolution

履 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
履 Bronze script Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
履 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

履  

lǚ

footwear, shoes; walk on, tread; shoe; to tread on

Most common words with 履
Freq.
Word
Meaning

履行

to perform

履历

résumé

履

shoe

西装革履

impeccably attired

如履薄冰

fig. to be extremely cautious

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (1 verified)

屐

Remnant component in 1 character (1 verified)

屐

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[r]ijʔ

lijX

lǚ

tread on; sandal


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 5.4621% of movies

2489th most common character in movies

1802nd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

15

Unicode

U+5C65

Shuowen

“履，足所依也。从尸，从彳，从攵，舟象履形。一曰尸聲。，古文履从頁，从足。”


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