What's the story behind this character 频? Neither of its components contribute phonetically to it, yet I can't seem to relate any of its components 步 steps and head/face 页 to its meaning of frequent/repeated.
2 Answers
「頻」 was created from omitting 「氵・水」 from 「瀕・𩕨」. While 「瀕」 remained as a character used for its original meaning, the newly created 「頻」 was used as a phonetic loan meaning frequent.
| 時期 字體 |
字形 | 參考資料 |
|---|---|---|
| 西周 金 |
 |
㝬簋 集成4317 |
| 戰國・楚 簡 |
 |
壹・皇門5 清華戰簡 |
篆 |
 |
頻部 說文解字 |
| 秦 陶文 |
 |
263 古陶文字徵 |
| 秦 陶文 |
 |
263 古陶文字徵 |
| 西漢 璽印 |
 |
漢印文字徵 |
| 東漢 隸 |
 |
陰面 華嶽廟殘碑 |
楷 |
 |
「頻」 was originally 「瀕」 (riverbank), comprised of semantic 「涉」 (picture of feet/footprints next to a body of water > to wade across water) and semantic 「頁」 (picture of a person with an exaggerated head/eye).
The 「水」 part of 「涉」 was often written in the middle of 「步」, leading to the side-by-side structure 「⿰𣥿頁」 instead.
The side-by-side structure was prone to corruption. More specifically, 「水」 tended to be squeezed out and omitted, forming 「頻」.
From this, we can see that 「頻」 is just a shape variant of 「瀕」, and originally shared the same definition as 「瀕」. From the Classic of Poetry: Major Court Hymns: Decade of Dàng:
《詩經・大雅・召旻》
池之竭矣、不云自頻。
泉之竭矣、不云自中。
溥斯害矣、職兄斯弘、不烖我躬。A pool becomes dry; is it not because no water comes to it from its banks?
A spring becomes dry; is it not because no water rises in it from itself?
Great is the injury [all about]. So that my anxious sorrow is increased. Will not calamity light on my person?
Translation by James Legge. See https://ctext.org/book-of-poetry/decade-of-dang.
Later on, while 「瀕」 remained in use as a character representing the word meaning riverbank, the differentiated character 「頻」 started becoming solely used as a phonetic loan character meaning frequent.
References:
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It's interesting how in this instance, the left and right components got swapped places.– SweeperCommented Apr 1, 2021 at 12:51
频 is simplefield Chinese. 頻 is traditional Chinese.
步 means step and 页 means head in ancient Chinese. 频 is explained as "Nod your head for each step." literally. It extended meaning to "frequent" or "repeat". Imagining that you are frequenting/repeating noding your head for each step.
