Chinese Character Wiki
隶

dài, lì

subservient

Original meaning: 

catch from behind

Depicts a hand (又) grabbing a tail (尾) from behind. Based on the original meaning "catch from behind", now written as 逮. In simplified Chinese 隶 is also used to mean "subservient", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 隸.

Components
又 iconic component

又  Iconic component

yòu

  

(hand), again

尾 iconic component

尾  Iconic component

wěi, yǐ

  

tail

Derived from the pictographic form of 尾 (tail).

Evolution

隶 Bronze script Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)

Bronze script

Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)
隶 Seal script Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)

Seal script

Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)
隶 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
隶 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

隶  

dài

to catch from behind

隶 (隸) 

lì

be subservient to; servant; attached to; scribe

隶 (隷) 

lì

variant of 隸|隶[lì]

Most common words with 隶
Freq.
Word
Meaning

奴隶

slave

隶属

to be attached to

奴隶制

slavery

奴隶主

slave owner

隶

scribe

Component uses

Meaning component in 2 characters (2 verified)

隸 逮

Sound component in 3 characters (1 verified)

逮 棣 埭

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

肆

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*m-rˤəp-s

dojH

dài

reach to


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 6.9998% of movies

2050th most common character in movies

1801st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Traditional

隸

Unicode

U+96B6

Shuowen

“隶，及也。从又，从省。又持者，从後及之也。”


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