jié

cruel

Original meaning: 

to be elevated

Depicts two feet () on top of a tree (). Based on the original meaning, "to be elevated" now written as . The current meaning "cruel" is a phoentic loan.

Components
舛 iconic component

  Iconic component

chuǎn

  

oppose

Depicts two feet.

木 iconic component

  Iconic component

  

tree

Evolution

桀 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

jié

chicken roost; ancient emperor; (emperor of Xia dynasty); cruel

Most common words with 桀
Freq.
Word
Meaning

cruel

桀骜不驯

unyielding

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (1 verified)

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*N-[k]<r>at

gjet

jié

remarkable; hero

*m-[k]<r>at

gjet

jié

perch for fowls

*[k]<r>at

kjet

jié

lift, raise


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

4097th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Unicode

U+6840

Shuowen

“桀,磔也。从舛在木上也。”


This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Creative Commons License