昔

昔 (radical 72, 日+4, 8 strokes, cangjie input 廿日 (TA), four-corner 4460₁, composition ⿱龷日)

1. formerly
2. ancient
3. in the beginning

• 借 惜 醋 錯 耤 猎

• KangXi: page 492, character 5
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 13816
• Dae Jaweon: page 855, character 2
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 2, page 1488, character 11
• Unihan data for U+6614

Historical forms of the character 昔
Shang	Western Zhou	Warring States	Shuowen Jiezi (compiled in Han)	Liushutong (compiled in Ming)
Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Chu Slip and silk script	Small seal script	Transcribed ancient scripts

Oracle bone form: Ideogrammic compound (會意) : 𡿧 (“disaster; floods”) + 日 (“sun”) – the flood submerging the sun; the former times.

Shuowen: Two pieces of flesh (仌) left to dry in the sun (日). Original form of 腊 (OC *sjaːɡ).

昔

1. ^† dried meat
2. former times; the past

   • 昔去雪如花，今來花似雪。 [MSC, trad.]
     昔去雪如花，今来花似雪。 [MSC, simp.]

     From: 范雲, 《別詩》

     Xī qù xuě rú huā, jīn lái huā sì xuě. [Pinyin]

     When I left then, the snow was like the flowers; I come now and the flowers are like the snow.

   • 昔魯公殺一無罪宮女，遂致九年旱澇；景公怒殺宮妃，臺傾三里。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     昔鲁公杀一无罪宫女，遂致九年旱涝；景公怒杀宫妃，台倾三里。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 甄偉, 西漢通俗演義

     Xī Lǔ Gōng shā yī wúzuì gōngnǚ, suì zhì jiǔ nián hànlào; Jǐng Gōng nù shā gōngfēi, tái qīng sān lǐ. [Pinyin]

     In olden times, the Duke of Lu murdered a guiltless palace maid, thus resulting in nine years of drought and flood; the Duke of Jing murdered a palace concubine in anger, causing terraces to collapse by three li.

3. ^† yesterday
4. ^† sunset; dusk
5. ^† Alternative form of 夕 (xī, “evening; night”).
6. A surname​.

昔

1. ^† coarse; rough
2. ^† Alternative form of 錯／错 (cuò, “to criss-cross”).
3. ^† Alternative form of 措 (cuò, “to use; to carry out”).

(grade 3 “Kyōiku” kanji)

• Go-on: しゃく (shaku, Jōyō, uncommon)
• Kan-on: せき (seki, Jōyō)
• Kun: むかし (mukashi, 昔, Jōyō)

From Old Japanese. The muka portion derives from the 未然形 (mizenkei, “incomplete form”) of verb 向く (muku, “to face opposite to something”), implying “that which stands opposite from the present”. The shi portion is suffix し (shi) indicating direction, also found in words 縦し (tatashi, “the standing or vertical direction”), 横し (yokoshi, “the sideways or horizontal direction”). This appears to be a somewhat rare alternative form, more commonly encountered as さ (sa), and may be cognate with the nominalizing adjective ending さ (sa).[1]

• Kun’yomi
  • (Tokyo) むかし [mùkáshí] (Heiban – [0])[2]
  • IPA^(key): [mɯ̟ᵝka̠ɕi]

昔 (hiragana むかし, rōmaji mukashi)

1. once (in the indeterminate past)

   昔 (むかし)見 (み)た映 (えい)画 (が)

   mukashi mita eiga

   a movie I once saw

昔 (hiragana むかし, rōmaji mukashi)

1. the past, old times
   • 970-999, Utsubo Monogatari (Toshikage)[3]

     むかし、式部大輔、左大弁かけて清原の王ありけり。

   昔 (むかし)と今 (いま) ― mukashi to ima ― the past and the present

   昔 (むかし)の自 (じ)分 (ぶん) ― mukashi no jibun ― my past self

   昔 (むかし)からの友達 (ともだち) ― mukashi kara no tomodachi ― a longtime friend (literally, “a friend since old times”)

   昔 (むかし)に戻 (もど)る ― mukashi ni modoru ― to return to the past

2. ancient

   昔 (むかし)の人 (ひと) ― mukashi no hito ― ancient people

   もう昔 (むかし)の話 (はなし)だ。 ― mō mukashi no hanashi da. ― That's ancient history.

昔 • (seok, chak) (hangeul 석, 착, revised seok, chak, McCune–Reischauer sŏk, ch'ak, Yale sek, chak)

1. formerly
2. ancient
3. in beginning

昔: Hán Nôm readings: tích, tếch, thách, tách

1. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.