Chinese Character Wiki
羞

xiū

shy, ashamed

Original meaning: 

offer a delicacy

Depicts a hand (丑) holding sheep meat (羊). Based on the original meaning "offer a delicacy", now written as 饈. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components
羊 iconic component

羊  Iconic component

yáng

  

sheep

丑 sound,iconic component

丑  Sound Iconic component

chǒu

  

second earthly branch; (simp.) ugly

Depicts a hand.

Evolution

羞 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
羞 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
羞 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

羞  

xiū

disgrace, shame; ashamed; shy; shame; bashful; variant of 饈|馐[xiū]; delicacies

Most common words with 羞
Freq.
Word
Meaning

害羞

shy

羞

shy

羞辱

to baffle

羞耻

(a feeling of) shame

羞愧

ashamed

Component uses

Sound component in 2 characters (2 verified)

饈 馐

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*s-nu

sjuw

xiū

shame


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 22.6173% of movies

1470th most common character in movies

2048th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Unicode

U+7F9E

Shuowen

“羞，進獻也。从羊，羊所進也；从丑，丑亦聲。”


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