惜

Translingual

Etymology

Phono-semantic compound (形聲): semantic 忄 (“heart”) + phonetic 昔 – a feeling (of the heart).

Note that 昔 has meaning of “past, ending”, hence connotations of “feelings for the past, feeling about an ending – regret, rue”.

Han character

惜 (radical 61 心+8, 11 strokes, cangjie input 心廿日 (PTA), four-corner 9406₁, composition ⿰忄昔)

1. pity, regret, rue, begrudge

References

• KangXi: page 391, character 11
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 10814
• Dae Jaweon: page 725, character 23
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2313, character 9
• Unihan data for U+60DC

---

Cantonese

Hanzi

惜 (Yale sik1)

---

Japanese

Kanji

惜 (common “Jōyō” kanji)

Readings

• On: せき (seki), しゃく (shaku)
• Kun: おしい (oshii), おしむ (oshimu)

---

Korean

Hanja

惜 (hangeul 석, revised seok, McCune-Reischauer sŏk, Yale sek)

---

Mandarin

Hanzi

惜 (pinyin xī (xi1), Wade-Giles hsi²)

---

Vietnamese

Han character

惜 (tích, tiếc)