Dong Chinese dictionary

jī

hairpin

Phonosemantic compound. ⺮ represents the meaning and 幵 represents the sound.

Components

⺮ Meaning component

zhú

bamboo

幵 Sound Meaning component

jiān, qiān

hairpin

笄 and 幵 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.笄 /*[k]ˤer (dialect: *-r > *-j)/
幵 /*[k]ˤe[r]/

Evolution

Seal script

Chu (Warring States: 475-221 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

笄

jī

hairpin; fifteen year old girl; 15 years old; hairpin for bun

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫