zì
self
Original meaning:
nose
Pictograph of a nose. Original form of 鼻 (nose). In China, when people point to themselves, they typically point to their nose.
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
Component uses
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*s.[b]i[t]-s | dzijH | zì | self (adv.) |
*s.[b]i[t]-s | dzijH | zì | to follow; from |
Statistics
HSK level 4
Appears in 99.8398% of movies
83rd most common character in movies
43rd most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 6 |
Unicode | U+81EA |
Shuowen | “自,鼻也。象鼻形。,古文自。” |
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.272
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