nài
endure
Original meaning:
make the head bald as punishment
Pictograph of a beard (而) being removed from the face by a hand (寸). Based on the original meaning "make the head bald as punishment", now written as 髡. The meaning later shifted to "tolerate" and "endure".
Evolution

Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
nài
endure, bear; resist; patient; capable of enduring; able to tolerate; durable; hardy; resistant
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*nˤə-s | nojH | nài | endure |
Statistics
Not found in HSK word list
Appears in 21.4160% of movies
1513th most common character in movies
1409th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 9 |
Unicode | U+8010 |
Shuowen | “耏,罪不至髡也。从而,从彡。耐,或从寸。諸法度字从寸。” |
Sources
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