Word: the original meaning is the externalization of inner thoughts. The ancients called the smallest ideographic unit "word" and the complete expression of sentence composition "word". In modern Chinese, "Ci" also refers to an ancient style and poem, such as "Song Ci" and "epigraph".
Remarks: The original intention is litigation. By extension, it is the words used in litigation. Then it is extended to general words and expressions, and also to a literary genre.
2. Different etymologies
Characters: pictophonetic characters were first seen in the Warring States period, and handed down documents were also first seen in the Warring States period. Jin Wen speaks from words and sounds; Seal script, official script and regular script follow the sound of words. "Ci" may originally refer to the words of government documents, so its meaning comes from "Ci"; The sound of "si" may also have a double meaning. The original meaning of "si" is official, so the sound of "word" from "si" may be related to official documents. In the six books, it belongs to form, sound and understanding.
Remarks: recognize the word. "Ci" first appeared in Oracle Bone Inscriptions. On the left side of the word is a hand to tidy the spool, and on the right is Xin. There are many variants of inscriptions on bronze: in addition to adding another hand on the left, there are also words of "mouth" or "speech" to make the meaning of "debate" more vivid; Another way is to replace "Xin" with "Si", which means "governance". The "Si" and "Ci" in the ancient voice belong to the part of "knowledge", so this word becomes a knowing word and a pictophonetic word.
3. Different usages
Words: words are used for word and lexical meanings, and words are used for verb meanings. Generally, compound words have fixed writing methods, such as lyrics, verbs, meanings, phrases and so on. In some traditional places where words are used, words are often used, such as speech, answer, eulogy and so on.