犀 - Dong Chinese dictionary

xī

rhinoceros

Phonosemantic compound. 尾 represents the sound and 牛 represents the meaning.

Components

wěi, yǐ

tail

犀 and 尾 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.犀 /*s.lˤəj/
尾 /*[m]əjʔ/

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

牛 Meaning component

niú

cow

Evolution

Bronze script

Western Zhou (1045-771 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

xī

rhinoceros; sharp, well-tempered; sharp

Most common words with 犀

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	犀利	sharp
	犀牛	rhinoceros
	犀	sharp
	灵犀	fig. mutual sensitivity
	心有灵犀一点通	hearts linked as one, just as the proverbial rhinoceros communicates emotion telepathically through his single horn (idiom); fig. two hearts beat as one