xīn

laborious

Original meaning: 

chisel

Pictograph of a chisel-like tool. The meaning later shifted to "hard" and "laborious".

Evolution

辛 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

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

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

xīn

bitter; toilsome, laborious; 8th heavenly stem; (of taste) hot or pungent; hard; laborious; suffering; eighth in order; eighth of the ten Heavenly Stems 十天干[shí​tiān​gān]; letter "H" or Roman "VIII" in list "A, B, C", or "I, II, III" etc; ancient Chinese compass point: 285°; octa

 

Xīn

surname Xin

Most common words with 辛
Freq.
Word
Meaning

辛苦

hard

hard

艰辛

hardships

辛普森

Simpson (name)

辛勤

hardworking

Component uses

Meaning component in 9 characters (4 verified)

Sound component in 8 characters (2 verified)

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

Unknown component in 2 characters (1 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[s]i[n]

sin

xīn

pungent; painful

*si[n]

sin

xīn

8th heavenly stem


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 22.1048% of movies

1260th most common character in movies

1463rd most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

7

Unicode

U+8F9B

Shuowen

“辛,秋時萬物成而孰。金剛味辛,辛痛即泣出。从一,从。,辠也。辛承庚,象人股。”


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