殆
dài

dangerous

Phonosemantic compound. 歹 represents the meaning and 台 represents the sound.

Components

歹
歹 Meaning component
dǎi, è, dāi evil, bad
台
台 Sound component
tái platform

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdojXlˤəʔdanger
Zhengzhangl'ɯːʔ

說文解字

危也。从歺台聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)