sì
four
In ancient texts the character 亖 (four horizontal strokes) was used. The current form 四 depicts breathing through the nose and is the original form of 呬. The use of 四 as a number is a phonetic loan.
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Most common words with 四
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
4 | ||
Sichuan province (Szechuan) in southwest China, abbr. 川 or 蜀, capital Chengdu 成都 | ||
all over the place | ||
all around | ||
Thursday |
Component uses
Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.948