曷
hé

why? what? where?

Original meaning: cut fruit

Depicts a type of fruit with something cut off from it. The component that depicts the fruit was later reanalyzed as phonetic component 匃. Based on the original meaning "cut fruit". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts something that has been cut from the fruit.

匃
匃 Sound component
gài beggar

Originally depicted a type of fruit. Later reanalyzed as phonetic component 匃.

Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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 (3 of 14 verified)

喝揭歇葛渴竭褐遏谒蝎碣羯謁猲

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

藒

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthat[g]ˤat what

說文解字

《說文》：“曷，何也。从曰，匃聲。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.387-388
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)