人

Pictogram (象形) – side view of a standing man, highlighting an arm and a leg. Compare 大, 立 (lì), 卩, 夭, and 氏 according to one interpretation. See also the original version of 年.

亼 is similar but unrelated; it represents an open mouth flipped upside down and appears on top of characters such as 食, 金, 令, 龠, and 今.

It represents a roof in the characters 余, 茶, 舍, and 倉. It represents a flag on a flagpole in 㫃. Eventually, it represents two parallel mountain walls in 谷.

The stylized version to the left of the characters is 亻 (see also 千). Similar but unrelated to 彳.

Sagart (1999) relates it to Tibetan ཉེན (nyen, “relative”), from ཉེ (nye, “near”) + nominalizing suffix -n; if so, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *nəj(ʔ) (“near”).

Schuessler (2007) proposes two etymologies:

* Same etymon as 仁 (OC *njin, “to be kind; to be good”), from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *s/k-niŋ (“heart; brain; mind”). The semantic association of 仁 with 人 was somewhat late, dated to Mencius's time; later on, 仁 would be usually interpreted as "humane, acting like a human being".

** If so, semantically parallel with Tibetan སེམས་ཅན (sems can, “living being, human, animal”, literally “possessor of mind”); and Latin animalis (“living, having soul”) from anima (“soul”).

* Related to Proto-Mon-Khmer *ɲaʔ ~ *ɲah (“person”) with a nominalizing suffix -n, from the auto-ethnonym of a hostile, possibly Austroasiatic-speaking, eastern people, whom the Sinitic-speaking Shang referred to as 人方 (OC *njin paŋ).

The Min native word for “person”; used as a replacement character for 儂 /侬. It is historically attested for Hokkien in the Arte de la Lengua Chiõ Chiu (1620) and Dictionario Hispanico Sinicum (1626-1642). Use of 人 for Hokkien is recommended by Taiwan's Ministry of Education (ROC MOE).