責 - Dong Chinese dictionary

zé

responsibility

Original meaning:

taxation

Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 朿 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "taxation". The meaning later shifted to "responsibility".

Components

朿 Sound component

cì

thorn, stab

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

貝 Meaning component

bèi

sea shell

In ancient China shells were used as currency.

貝 hints at the original meaning of 責, "taxation", which is no longer the most common meaning of 責 in modern Mandarin.

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

责 (責)

zé

one's responsibility, duty; duty; responsibility; to reproach; to blame

Most common words with 責

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	负责	to be in charge of
	责任	blame
	负责人	person in charge
	职责	duty
	指责	to criticize

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

債

Sound component in 6 characters (3 verified)

積蹟績債嘖漬

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese	Middle Chinese	Pinyin	Gloss
*s-tˤrek	tsreak	zé	demand payment
*s-tˤrek	tsreak	zé	blame
*s-tˤrek-s	tsreaH	zhài	debt

Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 62.9185% of movies

633rd most common character in movies

535th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes	11
Simplified	责
Unicode	U+8CAC
Shuowen	“責，求也。从貝，朿聲。”

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫

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Original meaning:

Freq.

Word

Meaning