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Etymology data from Wiktionary via Wiktextract (CC BY-SA 4.0). Chinese character data from the 說文解字, the Taiwan MOE 國語辭典簡編本 (CC BY-ND 3.0 TW) and HSK/TOCFL lists.

Explanations are written by a local model (gemma4) and only published after a verification pass against the cited sources. How it works.

Chinese

思

sī
to think; to cogitate
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 2
  • radical 心
  • 9 strokes

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Origin

Original form was 恖 (OC *snɯ), considered by Shuowen to be a phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *snɯ, *snɯs): phonetic 囟 (OC *snɯns) + semantic 心 (“heart”). It may also be a ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 囟 (“fontanel”) + 心 (“heart”).

囟 started to corrupt into the unrelated 田 as early as the silk script.

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • soundChinese囟 “fontanelle”
  • meaningChinese心 “heart (Classifier: 顆／颗 m; 個／个 c; 粒 mn)”

Words built on it: 意思, 不好意思, 思想, 思考, 有意思

Meanings

character
  1. to think; to cogitate
  2. to miss; to yearn for
  3. to hope; to wish
  4. feeling; mood
  5. thought; thinking
  6. to lament; to grieve for

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

思：容也。从心囟聲。凡思之屬皆从思。

Xu Shen, c. 100 CE — the first analytical dictionary of Chinese characters.

國語辭典 definitions

  1. →于思

© Ministry of Education, Taiwan — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW, shown unaltered.

How 思 was written 字形演變

  1. 思 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  2. 思 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  3. 思 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  4. 思 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  5. 思 in Regular script
    Regular
    楷書
    since c. 200 CE

Historical forms collected by the legacy etymfun dataset; most characters have several attested variants.

Sources

  • Historical glyph forms (zdic.net 字形演变) — Rights unverified
  • HSK / TOCFL word lists — Facts (levels)
  • 教育部《國語辭典簡編本》 (Taiwan MOE) — CC BY-ND 3.0 TW
  • 說文解字 Shuowen Jiezi (Xu Shen, c. 100 CE) — Public domain
  • Written form — n/a
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 思