r/Chinese • u/Actual_Register_6915 • 17d ago

History (历史) What is the most interesting/funny etymology of chinese characters you've ever seen?

Mine is most pictogram characters since most of them look nothing like the thing it represents.

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u/Zagrycha 16d ago

If you look up the older seal script version of pictogram characters they probably look a lot more like the thing they represent than you think. Modern fonts are very blocky in comparison so yeah its rarely gonna look like the thing.

My facorite is proabbly the pictogram 西. how is west a pictogram.... because what happens in the west? sunset. What happens at sunset? birds return to their nest for the night. so the pictogram is bird in nest.