Dong Chinese dictionary

xié

evil

Original meaning:

place name

Phonosemantic compound. 牙 represents the sound and ⻏ represents the meaning. Based on the original use as a place name. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

牙 Sound component

yá

tooth

邪 and 牙 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.邪 /*sə.ɢA/, /*sə.la/, /*ɢ(r)A/, /*[ɢ](r)A/
牙 /*m-ɢˤ<r>a/

⻏ Meaning component

yì

city

⻏ hints at the original meaning of 邪, "place name", which is no longer the most common meaning of 邪 in modern Mandarin.

Evolution

Bronze script

Late Warring States (~250 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

邪

xié

wrong, evil, depraved, vicious, perverse, heterodox; demonic; iniquitous; nefarious; evil; unhealthy influences that cause disease (Chinese medicine); (coll.) strange; abnormal

邪 (衺)

xié

old variant of 邪[xié]

Most common words with 邪