Challenge of the month - 兄

The top part of the oracle bone inscription represented a mouth, which suggested “speaking”. The bottom part depicted a person. The whole inscription meant “the head of the clan blessing during the offering ceremony”.

The character 兄 originally meant “blessing”. After the character had been borrowed to mean “elder brother”, another character 祝 (zhù - to pray) was created to represent the original meaning. Now 兄 is exclusively used to mean “elder brother”.