bǎo

reserve

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

is a component form of .

Sound component
bǎo protect

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangpuːʔ

說文解字

艸盛皃。从艸𠈃聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica