noun #6,580

Meanings

  1. 1 Di (surname)
  2. 2 northern barbarian tribes (historical)

Examples

Dírénjié shì Tángcháo zhùmíng de guānyuán.
Di Renjie was a famous official of the Tang Dynasty.
Tā xìng Dí.
His surname is Di.

Tips

history
originally referred to northern nomadic peoples in ancient China. It later became a surname. The most famous bearer is 狄仁杰 (Di Renjie), a Tang Dynasty judge.

Components

radical
quǎn
dog; animal (left-side form of 犬)
Left animal radical — the indexing component. In ancient ethnonyms, the dog/beast radical was often used pejoratively to label foreign tribes seen as outside the agrarian Han order. originally named northern nomadic peoples; over time the slur faded and settled into use as a surname.
semantic
huǒ
fire
Right fire — early commentaries linked the northern tribes to bonfires and beacon fires on the steppes, hence the fire on the right. Whether or not that gloss is the historical truth, the modern character keeps + as a stable left-right pairing. Sound-wise the link is opaque; treat as a memory hook.

In Pop Culture

狄仁杰 Dírénjié
Detective Dee
Tang Dynasty judge featured in films and TV series

Stroke Order