婁
Lóu

surname

Original meaning: hug

Depicts two hands holding a woman's (女) waist. Based on the original meaning "hug", now written as 摟. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts two hands holding a waist.

女
女 Iconic component
nǚ, nü woman

Depicts a woman.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 12 verified)

縷瞜褸髏僂屨螻樓摟屢數嘍

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartlju[r]o drag, trail (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“婁，空也。从母中女，空之意也。一曰婁務也。，古文。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.853-854
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

娄 lóu, lǚ, lǘ surname Simplified

Simplified form of 婁. Depicts two hands holding a woman's (女) waist. Based on the original meaning "hug", now written as 摟. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

米
米 Simplified component
mǐ rice

Shorthand for the component in the traditional character 婁 depicting two hands holding a waist.

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman

Component uses

Sound (4 of 18 verified)

数楼屡搂缕喽髅篓褛镂偻瘘蝼嵝窭蒌屦耧

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode