■ radical

xīn

new

How it’s built

Phonosemantic compound. 斤 represents the meaning and 辛 represents the sound. The 木 (wood) component was added later. Based on the original meaning "firewood", now written as 薪. The current meaning "new" is a phonetic loan.

辛

sound

hard; laborious; suffering — Also used as a meaning component. Hard work (辛) with an axe (斤) is required to produce firewood.

木

iconic

wood; tree

斤

meaning

axe

Appears in

Characters that use 新 as a component, most common first.

薪xīnfuel