正 - Dong Chinese dictionary

zhèng, zhēng

correct

Original meaning:

to attack (an enemy)

Depicts a foot (止) going out towards city walls (丁). 丁 also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "to attack (an enemy)", now written as 征. The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "correct".

Components

丁 Sound Iconic component

dīng

cubes

Depicts city walls.

正 and 丁 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.正 /*C.teŋ/, /*teŋ-s/
丁 /*tˤeŋ/, /*tˤeŋ/, /*tˤreŋ/

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

止 Iconic component

zhǐ

(foot), stop

Depicts a foot.

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

正

zhèng

right, proper, correct; straight; upright; proper; main; principal; to correct; to rectify; exactly; just (at that time); right (in that place); (math.) positive

正

zhēng

first month of the lunar year

Most common words with 正

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	正	straight
	正在	just at (that time)
	真正	genuine
	正常	regular
	正式	formal

Component uses

Meaning component in 4 characters (2 verified)

政证歪焉

Sound component in 11 characters (7 verified)

定政证整征延鉦症怔罡钲

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

征

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese	Middle Chinese	Pinyin	Gloss
*C.teŋ	tsyeng	zhēng	1st (month)
*teŋ-s	tsyengH	zhèng	correct (adj., v.)

Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 99.0870% of movies

149th most common character in movies

129th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes	5
Unicode	U+6B63
Shuowen	“正，是也。从止，一以止。，古文正，从二，二，古上字。，古文正，从一、足，足者，亦止也。”

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫

季旭昇《說文新證》p.120