Dong Chinese dictionary

bì, bēn

forge ahead

Original meaning:

adornment

Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 卉 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "adornment". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

犇 Sound component

bēn

run fast

賁 and 犇 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.賁 /*pˤur/, /*por-s/, /*[b]ur/
犇 /*pˤur/

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

貝 Meaning component

bèi

sea shell

Evolution