僕

Han character

僕 (Kangxi radical 9, 人+12, 14 strokes, cangjie input 人廿金人 (OTCO), four-corner 2223₄, composition ⿰亻菐)

Glyph origin

More information Historical forms of the character 僕 ...

Historical forms of the character 僕
Oracle bone script j05000 Bronze inscriptions b03327 b03328 b03329 b03330 b03331 b03332 b03333 b03334 b03335 b03336 b03337 Small seal script s01961 s01962 Transcribed ancient scripts L37363 L37364 L37365 L37366 L37367 L37368 L37369 L37370 L25033 L25034 L25035 L25036 L25037 L25038 L25039 L25040 L25041 L25042
References: Mostly from Richard Sears' Chinese Etymology site (authorisation), which in turn draws data from various collections of ancient forms of Chinese characters, including: Shuowen Jiezi (small seal), Jinwen Bian (bronze inscriptions), Liushutong (Liushutong characters) and Yinxu Jiaguwen Bian (oracle bone script).

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In the oracle bone script and the early Western Zhou bronze script, it was a pictogram (象形) of a slave or prisoner, with hands holding a basket (其) to pick up garbage, an instrument of punishment (辛) above the head, and a tail (尾) to represent the slave's low status, akin to animals.

其 later corrupts into 甾, the hands (廾) move below 辛, and the slave's body (人) moves to become the left component. Later, 辛 corrupts into 丵 (probably by fusing with 甾) and combines with 廾 to give 菐 (OC *boːɡ, *puɡ), which functions as a phonetic component.

In the current form, it is essentially a phono-semantic compound (形聲 / 形声, OC *boːɡ, *buːɡ): semantic 人 (“man”) + phonetic 菐 (OC *boːɡ, *puɡ).

Etymology

Probably related to Tibetan བུ (bu, “son; boy”) (Coblin, 1986).

Alternatively, Peiros and Starostin (1996) compare it to Tibetan ཕྲུག (phrug, “child”).

Pronunciation

Definitions

僕

1. servant; slave (often male)

   僕人／仆人  ―  púrén  ―  servant

2. (literary, humble, men's speech) I; me; your humble servant
3. (obsolete) coachman; groom
4. (obsolete) to attach; to adhere

   • 君子萬年，景命有僕。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
     君子万年，景命有仆。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11^th – 7^th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version

     Jūnzǐ wàn nián, jǐngmìng yǒu pú. [Pinyin]

     Yea for ten thousand years,
     The bright appointment is attached to your person.

5. a surname

Compounds

References

• “僕”, in 漢語多功能字庫 (Multi-function Chinese Character Database)‎, 香港中文大學 (the Chinese University of Hong Kong), 2014–
• 莆田市荔城区档案馆 [Putian City Licheng District Archives], editor (2022), “仆”, in 莆仙方言文读字汇 [Puxian Dialect Literary Reading Dictionary] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), page 179.