疑

Derived characters

 * 儗 凝 㘈 㠜 懝 擬 𣝅 𤪦 𤾰 礙 譺 䰯 𢥷 𩼨 㽈 觺 寲 嶷 薿 癡 籎

Glyph origin
Originally an – a man with a cane looking around with his mouth wide open, not know where to go – to be confused; to doubt. Compare: and, both showing the "open-mouth" component but on a seated figure. In the oracle bone script and bronze inscriptions, or  = 彳 +  was often added to indicate travelling or movement.

Various components were added later, e.g. in the bronze script of,  in the -style scripts including the proto-clerical script, and  in the early clerical script of Western Han. Meanwhile the main graphical element showing a standing figure eventually became or sometimes  as in the -style script (shown in the table). The Chu also added a component indicating "the mind".

The , in which headwords were written in the Qin-style seal script, interpreted the character as “a child standing on an obstructed road to compare the paths”:. 's commentary on Shuowen offered an alternative interpretation, pointing out that was unlikely to have a the phonetic component:. However, it is unlikely that any of the currently extant components had once indicated the pronunciation. conjectured that the was a corruption of  that had been the phonetic component.

The current form is derived from the Qin–Han clerical scripts, where on the right-hand side the elements or  have recombined into.

Etymology
Perhaps related to ; Cf. Proto-Tibeto-Burman (, provisional).

Definitions

 * 1) to doubt; to question
 * 2) doubtful
 * 3) question; query
 * 4) to suspect
 * 5) suspicious
 * 6) 62nd tetragram of the Taixuanjing; "doubt, unconfidence" (𝍃)
 * 7) as if
 * 8)   the Middle Chinese initial of
 * 1)   the Middle Chinese initial of
 * 1)   the Middle Chinese initial of

Kanji

 * 1) doubt
 * 2) suspect