<p>The reference from the Outlier source links to:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>p. 846</p>
</blockquote>
<p>of:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>季旭昇，2004《說文新證》，台北：藝文印書館印行，2014年9月第二版。</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Where you can see where they got their information from:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/2DqMT.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/2DqMT.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Ji Xusheng quotes oraculologist Ding Shan on the origin of the meaning of the oracle bone script character. He also does acknowledge the similarities between「失」&amp;「市」. He believes that「市」branched off from「失」and further diverged after the Zhou dynasty. Further information is contained in his entry for 「市」:</p>
<blockquote>
<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/CgS7i.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/CgS7i.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a><br />
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/Du63d.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/Du63d.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-16T15:31:55.563Z
So if I had to guess from the explaintions, 市 and 失 were once the same characters in the oracle bone inscriptions but later the two characters were interpreted differently and/or 市 was probably derived from 失 from corruption/phoneticization of the bottom component of 市 in which in my theory probably is supposed to originally depicted the bloody footprint's ankle.
prismcool
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-16T18:06:36.623Z
@prismcool Looks like「市」was originally a phonetic loan of「失」but then later branched off into its own separate character, probably because of the confusion caused from these rubus borrowings.
Mou某
CC BY-SA 4.0
2023-07-16T13:56:22.603Z
2023-07-16T19:16:47.143Z
2023-07-16T19:16:47.143Z
Mou某
<p>While I was looking up some origins regarding the character 失, I happen to come across three theories for the character.</p>
<p>The most common one a lot of sources say about this character is that it was composed of 手 and 乙 (which from what I've heard is also sound component) and it depicted a hand loosing an object.</p>
<p>However though when I looked up the ancient forms for this character, it looks nothing like a hand loosing an object and shows a person with their hair emphasized/stylized in a way as seen below: (ancient characters are from ccamc.org)
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/weA3P.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/weA3P.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a></p>
<p>To which the other source (Dong Chinese) says that this character depicted a person falling down and apparently originally meant, &quot;to stumble&quot;. In my opinion, I don't understand how this is supposed to look like a person that just fell over. If anything this more looks like a person with emphasized hair or something.</p>
<p>However in yet another source, Outlier Linguistics of Chinese Characters says this depicted a footprint with drops of blood surrounding it:
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/jIjBG.png" rel="noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/jIjBG.png" alt="enter image description here" /></a>
Here in this theory though, I noticed that the oracle bone inscription of 市 is used here which confuses me a lot more since I couldn't find any ancient forms that looked like a bloody footprint. I'm not sure if this is an ancient form of 失 or 市 judging from looking at the form.</p>
<p>If anyone can, it would be much appreciated helping me out with this glyph origin since I'm kind of confused about the explanations a little. Thanks!</p>

<glyph-origin>
What is the correct glyph origin of 失?
# What is the correct glyph origin of 失?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2023-07-16)

While I was looking up some origins regarding the character 失, I happen to come across three theories for the character.

The most common one a lot of sources say about this character is that it was composed of 手 and 乙 (which from what I've heard is also sound component) and it depicted a hand loosing an object.

However though when I looked up the ancient forms for this character, it looks nothing like a hand loosing an object and shows a person with their hair emphasized/stylized in a way as seen below: (ancient characters are from ccamc.org)
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/weA3P.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/weA3P.png)

To which the other source (Dong Chinese) says that this character depicted a person falling down and apparently originally meant, "to stumble". In my opinion, I don't understand how this is supposed to look like a person that just fell over. If anything this more looks like a person with emphasized hair or something.

However in yet another source, Outlier Linguistics of Chinese Characters says this depicted a footprint with drops of blood surrounding it:
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/jIjBG.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/jIjBG.png)
Here in this theory though, I noticed that the oracle bone inscription of 市 is used here which confuses me a lot more since I couldn't find any ancient forms that looked like a bloody footprint. I'm not sure if this is an ancient form of 失 or 市 judging from looking at the form.

If anyone can, it would be much appreciated helping me out with this glyph origin since I'm kind of confused about the explanations a little. Thanks!

**Tags:** glyph-origin


---

## 1 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2023-07-16. Score: 6 | Accepted answer

The reference from the Outlier source links to:

> p. 846

of:

> 季旭昇，2004《說文新證》，台北：藝文印書館印行，2014年9月第二版。

Where you can see where they got their information from:

> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/2DqMT.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/2DqMT.png)

Ji Xusheng quotes oraculologist Ding Shan on the origin of the meaning of the oracle bone script character. He also does acknowledge the similarities between「失」&「市」. He believes that「市」branched off from「失」and further diverged after the Zhou dynasty. Further information is contained in his entry for 「市」:

> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/CgS7i.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/CgS7i.png)  
> [![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/Du63d.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/Du63d.png)

> **Comments:**
> **username_0**: So if I had to guess from the explaintions, 市 and 失 were once the same characters in the oracle bone inscriptions but later the two characters were interpreted differently and/or 市 was probably derived from 失 from corruption/phoneticization of the bottom component of 市 in which in my theory probably is supposed to originally depicted the bloody footprint's ankle.  
> **username_1**: @username_0 Looks like「市」was originally a phonetic loan of「失」but then later branched off into its own separate character, probably because of the confusion caused from these rubus borrowings.  

---

