初文

chūwén
archaic (and simpler) form of a Chinese character

CEDICT

  1. (linguistics) original form (of a Chinese character)
  2. original form (of a Chinese character)

Wiktionary

文字学上指同一个字的初期写法。相对于后起字而言。以独体字居多。如「趾」本作「止」，象足趾形，后加意符「足」作「趾」。「止」即为「趾」的初文。

重編國語辭典

初期文字写法。

維基詞典

Entry Composition

1 初 chū
  1. at first
  2. (at the) beginning
  3. first
  4. junior
  5. basic
2 文 wén
  1. language
  2. culture
  3. writing
  4. formal
  5. literary
  6. gentle
  7. (old) classifier for coins
  8. Kangxi radical 67

Related entries

古字 gǔzì
  1. ancient character
  2. archaic form of a Chinese character