正 - Dong Chinese dictionary

zhèng, zhēng

correct

Original meaning:

journey

Pictograph of a foot (止) heading toward a city (丁). Based on the original meaning "journey", now written as 征.

Components

丁 Iconic component

dīng

cubes

Depicts city walls.

正 and 丁 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.正 /*C.teŋ/, /*teŋ-s/
丁 /*tˤeŋ/, /*tˤeŋ/, /*tˤreŋ/

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 丁 than it was in ancient scripts.

止 Iconic component

zhǐ

(foot), stop

Depicts a foot.

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

正

zhèng

right, proper, correct; straight; upright; proper; main; principal; to correct; to rectify; exactly; just (at that time); right (in that place); (math.) positive

正

zhēng

first month of the lunar year

Most common words with 正

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	正	straight
	正在	just at (that time)
	真正	genuine
	正常	regular
	正式	formal

Component uses

Meaning component in 4 characters (2 verified)

政证歪焉

Sound component in 11 characters (7 verified)

定政证整征延鉦症怔罡钲

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

征

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese	Middle Chinese	Pinyin	Gloss
*C.teŋ	tsyeng	zhēng	1st (month)
*teŋ-s	tsyengH	zhèng	correct (adj., v.)

Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 99.0870% of movies

149th most common character in movies

129th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes	5
Unicode	U+6B63
Shuowen	“正，是也。从止，一以止。，古文正，从二，二，古上字。，古文正，从一、足，足者，亦止也。”

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫

季旭昇《說文新證》p.120