About
The character 伊, which remains unchanged in both traditional and simplified orthographies, is a phono-semantic compound composed of the person radical 亻 and the component 尹, which historically conveyed both sound and a sense of grasping or governing. Its earliest discernible function was as a third-person pronoun, equivalent to "he" or "that person", a usage preserved in classical texts and still perceptible in the literary compound 伊人, meaning "that one" or a longed-for individual. From this demonstrative foundation, it developed into a surname and later became employed in transliterating foreign names, most notably forming the first syllable of 伊朗 (Iran). While its core pronominal use has largely faded from everyday modern speech, its structural integrity and its journey from a specific deictic term to a proper noun component illustrate a functional narrowing across time.
Etymology Hide
Example Sentences Hide
伊拉克有丰富的石油。
伊朗的首都是德黑兰。
伊斯兰教起源于阿拉伯半岛。
伊甸园在圣经中被描述。
伊丽莎白女王访问了加拿大。
新年伊始，我们制定了新计划。
伊拉克战争爆发于二零零三年。
在伊斯兰教法中，有一些特殊规定。