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This kanji has : - 止(phonetic) + 寸(hand : semantic) and the 止 part became 土 later

But I found in some resources this interpretations which explain "止" function in the kanji so I wanna know which on from this interpretations right or not?

1 : "寺　(6)　ジ；てら The relevant oracle bone form of this character is 止# (stand straight) + 寸 hand/action indicator → stand straight by in attending on a superior, then carry out orders → government office (← place where official functions are carried out). (Buddhist) temple "

2: Character decomposition 字形分解 [?]: Component 寺 from (rem- 土 tǔ) from foot-moving-zhi 之㞢𡳿 zhǐ and hand-measure-cun 寸 cùn. (name- hand-foot-si 寺 sì)

Decomposition notes 字形分解说明 [?]: (- measurement of time historically done at a temple)

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  • What references? What sources are you quoting? Can you tell us where your quotes and paraphrases come from, and can you use quote markdown to show which text is quoted?
    – user1478
    Mar 14, 2019 at 5:08

1 Answer 1

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「[寺]{じ}」was originally constructed from semantic「又」([right] hand) and phonetic「[之]{し}」, indicating the meaning to hold.「又」was later replaced by「寸」(hand with a mark at the wrist), which is a synonymous semantic component.

西周
金
enter image description here
𪵳伯寺簋
集成4007
篆
enter image description here
說文解字
　今
楷
enter image description here

　

The meaning temple is a phonetic loan, and to hold is now written as「持」, formed by adding another hand「手・扌」onto「寺」.

春秋
金
enter image description here
邾公牼鐘
集成150
篆
enter image description here
說文解字
　今
楷
enter image description here

　

Note:「之」and「止」are very easily confused.「[之]{し}」originally meant to go, and was originally constructed from simultaneously semantic and phonetic「[止]{し}」(picture of a foot) walking away from a place (the place is abstractly represented by a horizontal line「一」).

Compare the following two glyph evolution sequences, taken around the same time period:

商
甲
enter image description here
甲1440
合集31080西周
金
enter image description here
琱生簋
集成4292楚
簡
enter image description here
語1・105
　秦
簡
enter image description here
睡・為23
　今
楷
enter image description here

　

商
甲
enter image description here
鐵16.1
合集11654西周
金
enter image description here
小克鼎
集成2798楚
帛
enter image description here
帛乙5.34
　秦
簡
enter image description here
睡・法141
　今
楷
enter image description here

　

The bottom-most horizontal line「一」started being written as「乀」in「之」, while a confusingly similar bottom horizontal line started appearing in「止」.

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  • But I still wanna know which explaination is right Especially the first one...
    – user32763
    Mar 14, 2019 at 15:46
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    @user32763 well, they're all wrong according to my references. (A) 止(phonetic) + 寸(hand : semantic)... the character contains「之」, not「止」. (B) "寺　(6)　ジ；てら The relevant oracle bone form... there is no oracle bone form of「寺」, again it contains「之」and not「止」, and the meaning temple is a phonetic loan, not its original meaning. The original meaning of「寺」is「持」. (C) Character decomposition 字形分解 [?]: Component 寺... well, the character decomposition is correct (apart from forgetting the mention that it was originally「又」and not「寸」), but again「寺」did not have anything to do with temple.
    – dROOOze
    Mar 14, 2019 at 15:55

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