Abstract
The following essay is divided into three parts. In the first part, evidences are presented to show that, as a result of modern etymological researches, the traditional interpretation of as “what a man becomes after his death” can no longer be accepted as representing the primitive meaning of this character. In the second part, further evidences, both documentary and palaeographic, are adduced to show that was very probably the name given to some simian or anthropoid animal; and that its current significations of ghost, sprite, devil, etc. are but later modifications of this primitive notion. In the last part, the author makes a tentative classification of characters and terms which are the graphic, semantic or phonetic cognates of in the light of the above conclusions.
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