Is 纟 obtained by simplification of 糸 ？

Question

Neither纟 nor 糸 are used as words in modern Chinese, i know the word for silk is 丝( trad 絲). Many radicals in the list of 214 kangxi radicals have both traditional and simplified character, but that one is not clear about what it is, simplified or traditional.
Any information about etymology or origin of 纟 and 糸 is welcome :-)

Answer 1

纟 derived from 糸, which is the silk. (looks very like)

Like many other simplified Chinese Characters, 纟comes from 草书, such as

• 訁 -> 讠
• 飠 -> 饣
• 糹 -> 纟
• 釒 -> 钅

most of the characters with 纟are related to textiles ( 纺织品 ) , such as

“丝”、“线”、“经”、“纬”、“绑”、“纹”、“纷”、“纱”、”“绞”

refer to: https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E7%BA%9F/8457525?fr=aladdin

Answer 2

The standalone character 糸 pronounced si1 is a variant of 丝 (丝的异体字)

「糸，细丝也」

It is written 糹(traditional) and then 纟(simplified) when it appears as a radical on the left side of a character. According to the 简化字总表:

[...] 不论在一个字的任何部位，都可以使用，其中 “讠、饣、纟、钅”一般只能用于左偏旁。这些简化偏旁一般都不能单独使用。

When it appears in other positions, it keeps its full form 糸:

系、紧、繁

In cursive script 书法，the bottom part of 糸 often appears as three disconnected dots, or even a straight line. For example 紧:

From this you can see how it becomes 糹as traditional radical, and later on 纟(two strokes less), maintaining a tie to its original form.

Answer 3

Is 纟 obtained by simplification of 糸 ？

Yes, 「纟」 is a cursive calligraphy abbreviation of 「糸」 with its strokes straightened later, and in print form, it exclusively appears in Simplified Chinese as a component, but only under certain conditions. If you want to write 「糸」 by itself, it is still 「糸」 and not 「纟」.

Like other conditions on these kinds of abbreviations, you only use 「纟」 in place of 「糸」 if you haven't finished writing the character that 「纟」 is part of, and the next stroke that you're writing appears to the right hand side of 「纟」. You can perform this sanity check on characters you may come across:

• 「纟」 is not used in 「系」
• 「纟」 is used in 「辫」 (Simplified Chinese only)

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「糸」 originally came from a picture of a small loop of thread 「幺」. Sometimes, 「幺」 was drawn with frayed thread ends, forming 「糸」.

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The two characters 「糸」 and 「幺」 are now used to represent different words, but by themselves or as a semantic component as of other characters, they generally retain meanings developed from small thread:

• 幺 (tiny, youngest 「老幺」, colloquial for one in speech when reciting numbers 「幺二三」)
• 麼 (small 「幺麼」)
• 細 (thin)
• Some characters for colours, referring to dyed silks
• Many characters having meanings to do with linking and continuation.

Duplicating 「糸」 or 「幺」 into 「絲」 or 「𢆶」 forms another series of words, generally not overlapping with 「糸」* or 「幺」 in history. See 兹 as a phonetic component for more details.

_{*Unless you're using Japanese, which has merged 「絲」 and 「糸」 into 「糸」.}