shěng, xǐng
save
Original meaning:
eye disease
Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 生 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "eye disease", now written as 眚. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Most common words with 省
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
to save | ||
the whole province | ||
saving | ||
to reflect upon oneself | ||
unconscious |
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*[s]eŋʔ | sjengX | xǐng | inspect |
Statistics
HSK level 2
Appears in 22.6173% of movies
1428th most common character in movies
666th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 9 |
Unicode | U+7701 |
Shuowen | “省,視也。从眉省,从屮。,古文从少,从囧。” |
Sources
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