What is the glyph origin for 白?

Question

Recently for a while now, I've been debating for a long time now on what 白 (white, clear) is supposed to depict. I've heard from a lot of sources that it could be either a rice grain, a thumb, an acorn, candle light etc.

The thing is, I cannot determine what this character is originally supposed to represent.

I did research on my own figuring out what this character depicts and in my opinion, I think it might possibly depicts a human's skull noting the character's use in 皃 since in that character, it was used to emphasize the face/head of a person. I also took note that it was almost similar to 囟 in ancient form since they seem to share the same shape expect 囟 had a vertical line through it. However, when looking at the old Chinese pronunciations for 白 and 囟, they were completely different. So I'm doubting that it probably depicts a stylized human skull.

If anyone can, some help on finding the origin of 白 would be nice since I cannot come to a conclusion on what this character is supposed to be.

Answer 1

From 百度:

白（拼音：bái）为汉语一级通用规范汉字（常用字） [9] 。此字始见于甲骨文 1 ，其古字形有多种解释，一种解释称白为太阳初升指状，另有一种解释为大拇指之状，还有一种解释为白色谷米。“白”的基本义指白色，由白色引申为纯洁。白又表示明亮，进而又有了清楚的意思，

....用“白”作意符的字大都和白色、明亮有关，如：皎、皙、皑、皓。 [20]

From 汉典:

(1) (象形。甲骨文字形，象日光上下射之形，太阳之明为白，从“白”的字多与光亮、白色有关。本义:白颜色)

(2) 同本义 [white] 古人用以代表西方、

《說文解字》- 白的古字

說明: 西方色也。陰用事，物色白。

To sum up the above explanations, I believe in the very beginning, 白 was used to describe the color of daylight - the period of the day with light was called 白日/晝 (daytime). In contrast, the period of the day in the dark was called 黑夜 (night).

Answer 2

其古字形有多种解释，
its old shape has various explanations,
一种解释称白为太阳初升指状，
one explanation states it represents the rising sun,
另有一种解释为大拇指之状，
another explanation says it represents a thumb,
还有一种解释为白色谷米。
yet another explanation says it represents white rice.

I have watched the sun rise many times. The sun is always red or yellow. The sky is generally blue. Clouds may be white, but often appear black or grey, maybe with a pink tinge.

The moon is white in the night sky and 白道 means "the path of the moon".

Perhaps the original meaning was "clear" as in "the clear light of day" and "white" is the extended meaning. from "clear".