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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

皮

pí
skin; peel; shell; rind (Classifier: 塊／块 m c; 層／层 m c)
  • Pictogram
  • HSK 3
  • TOCFL 5
  • radical 皮
  • 5 strokes

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Origin

Pictogram (象形) – a hand (又) stripping the fur from an animal pelt (similar to 革). The pelt moved to the top left and became abstracted.

The character 叚 is similar, but actually it depicts two hands and some rocks 石 on oracle bones; a conservative variant is 𠭊.

;“skin”

; “pico-”

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • partChinese乛
  • partChinese丿 “left-falling stroke, usually read as 撇”
  • partChinese丨 “To connect vertically; to pass through from top to bottom.”
  • partChinese又 “again; once more”

Words built on it: 被, 破, 皮包, 波

Meanings

character
  1. skin; peel; shell; rind (Classifier: 塊／块 m c; 層／层 m c)
  2. hide; leather
  3. wrapper; cover; skin
  4. surface; top part
  5. rubber
  6. thin sheet; broad, flat piece (of some thin material)

Shuowen Jiezi 說文解字

皮：剥取獸革者謂之皮。从又，爲省聲。凡皮之屬皆从皮。

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

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 動植物體的表層組織。 例：獸皮、樹皮、皮開肉綻
  2. 包在物體表面的東西。 例：封皮、書皮
  3. 薄片狀的東西。 例：鐵皮、豆腐皮
  4. 皮革製的。 例：皮鞋、皮箱、皮筏
  5. 有彈性的。 例：皮球、皮蛋
  6. 頑劣、不聽話。 例：頑皮

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

How 皮 was written 字形演變

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

  • Structural decomposition (chaizi) — See upstream
  • 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: 皮