What was the glyph origin of 己? What was its original meaning?

Question

I understand that the current meaning of 己 is "oneself", which is different to its original meaning. Now I am curious about the history of the character.

I found different opinions regarding 己's glyph origin:

• skein of silk for binding objects
• three horizontal lines where a skein of thread is winded
• loom

I also tried to look for information regarding the original meaning of 己, and one source said it is "to sort out". If that is the case, I still do not understand how an ideogram of a skein of silk/thread or loom was being used to express the meaning of "to sort out".

This is my first post here. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you! :-)

Answer 1

Not a very satisfying answer, but it looks like there is no consensus as to the original meaning of「己」at the moment.

Outlier

It is not clear what the original meaning and form of 己 are. It was used in early texts as one of the Heavenly Stems (天干 tiāngān). [Reference, p. 964]

The reference:

季旭昇，2004《說文新證》，台北：藝文印書館印行，2014年9月第二版。

The reference from p. 964 of《說文新證》:

Answer 2

I found different opinions regarding 己's glyph origin:...

I also tried to look for information regarding the original meaning of 己,..

己 字源字形 -

己 详细解释:

(1) (象形.甲骨文字形，象绳曲之形.) “己”是古“纪”字，假借作“自己”用。①**本义:**丝的头绪，用以缠束丝。②自己) 自己，本人 [oneself]

https://www.zdic.net/hans/%E5%B7%B1