Explore each form from the oldest known stage to today.
Historical forms are not available yet. The current form is shown as a reference.
The kanji "毎" originates from a pictographic representation in oracle bone script depicting a woman with a hairpin or ornament in her hair. This original character was "母" (mother), symbolizing a mature, married woman who would adorn her hair. The core idea was not the woman herself, but the regularity and constancy associated with her role; a mother is a perpetual, ever-present figure in the family unit. Over time, this form was borrowed phonetically to represent a word meaning "every" or "each," leading to the need for a visual distinction. To differentiate "every" from "mother," the character evolved during the bronze script period. A horizontal line was added above the woman's head, which is interpreted either as an additional, more elaborate hair ornament or, more persuasively, as a prohibition marker. This transformed the character into an ideogram, combining the image of a woman (母) with a line indicating "not" or "against," creating a new meaning of "not (just) one mother" or "not a single time," which semantically extended to "every time" or "each." This evolved form is the direct predecessor of the modern "毎." The character was standardized during the clerical script transition in China and was imported to Japan alongside the bulk of the Chinese writing system between the 5th and 6th centuries AD, primarily through Korean scholars and imported texts. In Japanese, it adopted the native kun'yomi "ごと" (as in "そのごと") and the on'yomi "マイ" from Chinese. A key linguistic note is its consistent function as a prefix or component in compound words to express generality, such as "毎日" (every day) and "毎回" (every time), solidifying its abstract, distributive meaning that diverged completely from its pictographic origins tied to the maternal figure.