zhé, shé, zhē
break off
Depicts a hand (扌) using an axe (斤) to chop something. Older forms of this character depicted an axe chopping a tree into two pieces.
Evolution
Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
zhé
break off, snap; bend; to break; to fracture; to snap; to suffer loss; to bend; to twist; to turn; to change direction; convinced; to convert into (currency); discount; rebate; tenth (in price); classifier for theatrical scenes; to fold; accounts book
shé
to break (e.g. stick or bone); a loss
zhē
to turn sth over; to turn upside down; to tip sth out (of a container)
zhé
variant of 折[zhé]
Sources