尉 (wèi) · military officer

Meanings

1 military officer
2 low-ranking military officer (lieutenant/captain level)

Characters

尉

wèi

military officer

Examples

HSK 6

他被提升为尉官。

Tā bèi tíshēng wéi wèiguān.

He was promoted to the rank of officer.

HSK 6

古代的军队中有各级尉官。

Gǔdài de jūnduì zhōng yǒu gè jí wèiguān.

Ancient armies had officers of various ranks.

Tips

history

In the Chinese military rank system, 尉 refers to the junior officer level - specifically 少尉 (second lieutenant), 中尉 (first lieutenant), and 上尉 (captain). It is the lowest tier of commissioned officers.

memory

Note the pronunciation: 尉 as a rank is wèi. When used in the surname 尉迟 or place name 尉犁, it is read yù - a rare exception.

Components

radical

寸 cùn

inch; hand-measure

Right 寸 - a hand with the thumb marking a measured inch, the indexing radical. Carries the meaning of careful manual action: pressing, applying, taking charge. The military rank sense (lieutenant) came from the older notion of someone who 'applies' authority over a small unit, hand on the rein.

semantic

尸 shī

cloth; flat object (here graphic)

Top-left 尸 - originally pictured a folded cloth or a hot iron viewed from the side, not the modern 'corpse' sense. Here it represents the pressing-iron or seal being applied. The Kangxi radical is 寸 (the hand at right), so 尸 here is a semantic helper, not the indexer.

semantic

示 shì

altar; surface (here graphic)

Lower-left 示 - usually 'altar' but here functioning as the flat surface or anvil on which something is pressed. The graph 尉 originally depicted ironing a wrinkle out of cloth, hand pressing fabric onto a smooth board; later borrowed for the title 'military officer' through unrelated sound.