Chinese Character Wiki
須

xū

must

Original meaning: 

beard

Pictograph of a person with a bearded face. Based on the original meaning "beard", now written as 鬚. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components
彡 iconic component

彡  Iconic component

shān

  

hair

頁 iconic component

頁  Iconic component

yè, xié

  

(head), page

Depicts a head.

Evolution

須 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
須 Bronze script Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)

Bronze script

Late Western Zhou (~800 BC)
須 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
須 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
須 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

须 (須) 

xū

must, have to, necessary; moment; whiskers; must; to have to; to wait

Most common words with 須
Freq.
Word
Meaning

必须

must

须

beard

无须

need not

胡须

beard

须知

key information

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (1 verified)

鬚

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

鬚

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*C-[s.n]o

sju

xū

beard

*[s]o

sju

xū

斯須 a short time


Statistics

Not found in HSK word list

Appears in 80.5542% of movies

355th most common character in movies

444th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

12

Simplified

须

Unicode

U+9808

Shuowen

“須，面毛也。从頁，从彡。”


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