倒账
dǎo​zhàng

bad debt

倒 dào, dǎo fall over

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 到 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

到
到 Sound component
dào, dao go to

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttawXtˤawʔ turn upside down (v.i.)
tawHtˤawʔ-s turn over, invert; pour

說文解字

《說文新附》：“倒，仆也。从人，到聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

账 zhàng accounts Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 贝 represents the meaning and 长 represents the sound. Simplified form of 賬.

Components

贝
贝 Meaning component
bèi sea shell
长
长 Sound component
zhǎng, cháng long

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

賬 accounts Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 長 represents the sound.

Components

貝
貝 Meaning component
bèi sea shell
長
長 Sound component
zhǎng, cháng long

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangtaŋs

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang