pay respects

Original meaning: 

to tremble with fear

Depicts a hand holding a bamboo stick () walking on the edge of an abyss (𣶒). Based on the original meaning "to tremble with fear". The meaning later shifted to "solemn" and "pay respects".

Components
聿 iconic,remnant component

  Iconic Remnant component

  

writing brush

Used here to depict a hand holding a bamboo stick.

𣶒 iconic component

𣶒  Iconic component

yuān

  

deep pool

Depicts a deep pool filled with water.

Evolution

肅 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
肅 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
肅 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
肅 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

() 

pay respects; reverently; respectful; solemn; to eliminate; to clean up

() 

surname Su

Most common words with 肅
Freq.
Word
Meaning

严肃

solemn

肃静

silence

甘肃

Gansu province, abbr. 甘[Gān], short name 隴|陇[Lǒng], capital Lanzhou 蘭州|兰州[Lán​zhōu]

甘肃省

Gansu Province, abbr. 甘[Gān], short name 隴|陇[Lǒng], capital Lanzhou 蘭州|兰州[Lán​zhōu]

solemn

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

Sound component in 6 characters (0 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*siwk

sjuwk

solemn, severe

*siwk

sjuwk

contract (v.); shrivel

*siwk

sjuwk

present (v.)

*siwk

sjuwk

beat (v.)

*siwk

sjuwk

eager; swift


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 10.5398% of movies

1976th most common character in movies

1518th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

13

Simplified

Unicode

U+8085

Shuowen

“肅,持事振敬也。从在上,戰戰兢兢也。,古文肅。从心,从卪。”


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