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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

衛

wèi
to guard; to protect; to defend
  • Phono-semantic compound 形聲
  • HSK 3
  • radical 行
  • 15 strokes

Etymology graph

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  • borrowed
  • derived
  • parts
  • meaning component
  • sound component
  • related
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Origin

Phono-semantic compound (形聲 /形声, OC *ɢʷads): semantic 行 + phonetic 韋 (OC *ɢʷɯl).

From Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Lineage

  • meaningChinese行 “to walk”
    • componentChinese彳 “to walk slowly”
    • componentChinese亍 “to stop; to stand still”
  • soundChinese韋 “tanned leather”
    • ideaChinese舛 “to be opposed to; to be contrary to; to deviate from”
      • ideaChinese夊 “of going, slow”
      • ideaChinese𡕒
    • ideaChinese囗 “box, enclosure”

Meanings

character
  1. to guard; to protect; to defend
  2. security guard
  3. the State of Wey during the Zhou dynasty, located in modern-day northeastern Henan province
  4. satellite (in satellite names)
  5. a surname

國語辭典 definitions

  1. 保護、防守。 例：防衛、自衛、守衛
  2. 擔任防護工作的人。 例：侍衛、警衛
  3. 古國名。周朝分封的姬姓諸侯國，故址約在今河北省南部和河南省北部一帶，後為秦所滅。
  4. 姓。

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

How 衛 was written 字形演變

  1. 衛 in Oracle bone script
    Oracle bone
    甲骨文
    Shang, c. 1250–1050 BCE
  2. 衛 in Bronze script
    Bronze
    金文
    Shang–Zhou
  3. 衛 in Chu slips & silk script
    Chu slips & silk
    楚系簡帛
    Warring States
  4. 衛 in Qin slips script
    Qin slips
    秦系簡牘
    Qin
  5. 衛 in Small seal script
    Small seal
    說文小篆
    Shuowen, c. 100 CE
  6. 衛 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
  • Wiktionary (via Wiktextract / kaikki.org) — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • Wiktionary: 衛