shì
scholar, soldier
Original meaning:
soldier
Pictograph of the head of an axe. Used to represent a soldier.
Evolution

Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Component uses
Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*[m-s-]rəʔ | dzriX | shì | officer; gentleman |
Statistics
HSK level 4
Appears in 83.5816% of movies
247th most common character in movies
372nd most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 3 |
Unicode | U+58EB |
Shuowen | “士,事也。數始於一,終於十。从一,从十。孔子曰:‘推十合一為士。’” |
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.59-60
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