巳

See also: 己 and 已
巳 U+5DF3, 巳
CJK UNIFIED IDEOGRAPH-5DF3
← 已
[U+5DF2] 		CJK Unified Ideographs 巴 →
[U+5DF4]

⺒ U+2E92, ⺒
CJK RADICAL SNAKE
← ⺑
[U+2E91] 		CJK Radicals Supplement ⺓ →
[U+2E93]

Translingual

Stroke order

Han character

巳 (Kangxi radical 49, 己+0, 3 strokes, cangjie input 口山 (RU), four-corner 77717, composition ⿺乚コ)

Derived characters

  • Appendix:Chinese radical/己
  • 包 (Chinese form)
  • 导

References

  • Kangxi Dictionary: page 326, character 12
  • Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 8744
  • Dae Jaweon: page 631, character 1
  • Hanyu Da Zidian (first edition): volume 2, page 984, character 2
  • Unihan data for U+5DF3

Chinese

simp. and trad.
 巳

Glyph origin

Historical forms of the character 巳
Shang Western Zhou Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han) Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script Bronze inscriptions Small seal script Transcribed ancient scripts
Characters in the same phonetic series () (Zhengzhang, 2003) 
Old Chinese
巳 *ljɯʔ, *lɯs
祀 *ljɯʔ
汜 *ljɯʔ
戺 *zrɯʔ
起 *kʰɯʔ
熙 *qʰlɯ
媐 *qʰlɯ, *lɯ
圯 *lɯ
异 *lɯ, *lɯs
巸 *lɯ

Two different theories:

  • Pictogram (象形) of a fetus (it can be seen in 包, 胞. In 包, the radical should represent the placenta. 胞 today means "cell").
  • Pictogram (象形) of a snake (therefore, it should be similar to 巴). This theory is found in the Shuowen Jiezi, which however is not based on oracle bones versions of characters.

The character is similar to 已, which cannot be found in the Shuowen Jiezi.

Etymology 1

巳 (OC s-ləʔ) displaced 子 (OC tsəʔ), the original sixth earthly branch which denoted the moon's "coming forth" stage (i.e. early waning-gibbous phase) "due to phonological closeness (combined with the semantic opacity of the Branch terms at later eras)" (Smith, 2011).

Association with the snake was possibly arbitrary, analogous to how 辰, the fifth earthly branch, was arbitrarily associated with the dragon (Ferlus, 2013).

Pronunciation

Note:
  • si5 - vernacular (e.g. 巳蛇);
  • so5/ser5 - literary (e.g. 辰巳).
Note: chī - vernacular, sū - literary.
Rime
Character 巳
Reading # 2/3
Initial (聲) 邪 (17)
Final (韻) 之 (19)
Tone (調) Rising (X)
Openness (開合) Open
Division (等) III
Fanqie 詳里切
Baxter ziX
Reconstructions
Zhengzhang
Shangfang 		/zɨX/
Pan
Wuyun 		/zɨX/
Shao
Rongfen 		/zieX/
Edwin
Pulleyblank 		/zɨX/
Li
Rong 		/ziəX/
Wang
Li 		/zĭəX/
Bernhard
Karlgren 		/ziX/
Expected
Mandarin
Reflex 		sì
Expected
Cantonese
Reflex 		zi6
Baxter–Sagart system 1.1 (2014)
Character 巳
Reading # 1/1
Modern
Beijing
(Pinyin) 		sì
Middle
Chinese 		‹ ziX ›
Old
Chinese 		/*s-[ɢ]əʔ/
English 6th earthly branch

Notes for Old Chinese notations in the Baxter–Sagart system:

* Parentheses "()" indicate uncertain presence;
* Square brackets "[]" indicate uncertain identity, e.g. *[t] as coda may in fact be *-t or *-p;
* Angle brackets "<>" indicate infix;
* Hyphen "-" indicates morpheme boundary;

* Period "." indicates syllable boundary.
Zhengzhang system (2003)
Character 巳
Reading # 1/2
No. 12007
Phonetic
component
Rime
group 		之
Rime
subdivision 		0
Corresponding
MC rime 		似
Old
Chinese 		/*ljɯʔ/

Definitions

巳

  1. sixth of twelve earthly branches (十二支)
  2. snake (蛇) of Chinese zodiac
Coordinate terms
  • (Chinese earthly branches) 地支 (dìzhī); 子 (zǐ), 丑 (chǒu), 寅 (yín), 卯 (mǎo), 辰 (chén), 巳 (sì), 午, 未 (wèi), 申 (shēn), 酉 (yǒu), 戌 (xū), 亥 (hài) (Category: zh:Chinese earthly branches)
Compounds

References

Etymology 2

For pronunciation and definitions of 巳 – see 已 (“to stop; to finish; already; have done something; etc.”).
(This character is a variant form of 已).

References

  • “巳”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎[2], 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
  • 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long], 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu], 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying], 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019) “巳”, in 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 164.

Japanese

Kanji

巳

(Jinmeiyō kanji)

  1. sign of the snake

Readings

  • Go-on: じ (ji)
  • Kan-on: し (shi)
  • Kun: み (mi, 巳)

Etymology 1

Kanji in this term
巳
み
Jinmeiyō
kun'yomi

Assumed to be an abbreviation of 蛇 (hemi, “snake”, modern reading hebi).[1][2]

Philological analyses presume this was read as mi₂ in Old Japanese, as names 身麻呂 (mi₂maro₂, “a male born on the year of the Snake”) and 身売 (mi₂me₁, “a female born on the year of the Snake”) were recorded in Shōsōin documents, alongside other names born on the Chinese zodiac.[3][1]

Pronunciation

Proper noun

巳(み) • (Mi) 

  1. the Snake, the sixth of the twelve Earthly Branches (by extension):
    Hypernyms: 十二支, 地支
    Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥
    • 1603, Vocabvlario da Lingoa de Iapam (Nippo Jisho) [Vocabulary of the Language of Japan] (in Portuguese), Nagasaki:
      [6]
      Mi. ミ (巳) 例, Minotoqi (巳の時) 午前八時から十時まで.
      Mi. Example: Minotoki (time of the Snake). A time from 8 AM to 10 AM.
    1. a year corresponding to the year of the Snake
    2. south-southeast: a direction pointed thirty degrees from south to east
    3. 10 am
    4. April

Etymology 2

Kanji in this term
巳
し
Jinmeiyō
on'yomi

From Middle Chinese 巳 (ziX).

Affix

巳(し) • (Shi) 

  1. the Snake, the sixth of the twelve Earthly Branches
    Hypernyms: 十二支, 地支
    Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 “み 【巳】”, in 日本国語大辞典 [Nihon Kokugo Daijiten]‎[1] (in Japanese), 2nd edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, 2000-2002, released online 2007, →ISBN, concise edition entry available here
    The 語源説 (gogensetsu, “etymological theory”) section says:
    1. ヘミ（蛇）の略〔日本釈名・和訓栞・大言海〕。
    2. ミ（実）の義〔言元梯〕。


    The 上代特殊仮名遣い (Jōdai Tokushu Kanazukai, “A/B distinction in Old Japanese”) section says:

    ミ
    上代の文献にこの語の直接の仮名書き例はないが、十二支に基づくと見られる人名の表記が正倉院文書の戸籍帳に少なからずあり、その中に「巳」に基づく「身麻呂」「身売」などの名があることから、「巳」は「身」と同じくミだったろうと推定されている。
    （※青色は甲類に属し、赤色は乙類に属する。）

  2. ^ Shinmura, Izuru, editor (1998), 広辞苑 [Kōjien] (in Japanese), Fifth edition, Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten, →ISBN
  3. ^ Omodaka, Hisataka (1967) 時代別国語大辞典 上代編 [The dictionary of historical Japanese: Old Japanese] (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Sanseidō, →ISBN, pages 696-697
  4. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (2006), 大辞林 [Daijirin] (in Japanese), Third edition, Tokyo: Sanseidō, →ISBN
  5. ^ NHK Broadcasting Culture Research Institute, editor (1998), NHK日本語発音アクセント辞典 [NHK Japanese Pronunciation Accent Dictionary] (in Japanese), Tokyo: NHK Publishing, Inc., →ISBN
  6. ^ Doi, Tadao (1603–1604) Hōyaku Nippo Jisho (in Japanese), Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten, published 1980, →ISBN.

Korean

Hanja

巳 • (sa) (hangeul 사, revised sa, McCune–Reischauer sa, Yale sa)

  1. the hours from 9 to 11
  2. 6th terrestrial branch

Vietnamese

Han character

巳: Hán Nôm readings: tị

  1. chữ Hán form of Tị (“sixth of the twelve earthly branches”)
    Hypernyms: 地支, 十二支
    Coordinate terms: 子, 丑, 寅, 卯, 辰, 巳, 午, 未, 申, 酉, 戌, 亥

Compounds

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