Chinese Character Wiki
息

xī

rest

Original meaning: 

breathe

Depicts a breath of air going into the nose (自). The lines representing breath were later reanalyzed as 心 (heart).

Components
自 iconic component

自  Iconic component

zì

  

self

自 was the original form of 鼻 (bí; nose).

◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Originally lines depicting breath. Later reanalyzed as 心 (heart).

Evolution

息 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
息 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

息  

xī

rest, put stop to, end, cease; breath; news; interest (on an investment or loan); to cease; to stop; to rest; Taiwan pr. [xí]

Most common words with 息
Freq.
Word
Meaning

消息

news

信息

news

休息

rest

息

breath

气息

breath

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

熄

Sound component in 4 characters (0 verified)

媳 熄 螅 瘜

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*sək

sik

xī

breathe

*sək

sik

xī

安息 Ānxī (Iranian country in the western regions, W. Hàn; from Aršaka = Arsaces, founder of the Arsacid dynasty)


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 83.3574% of movies

367th most common character in movies

428th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

10

Unicode

U+606F

Shuowen

“息，喘也。从心，从自，自亦聲。”


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