Depicts of a hand or paw with fingernails or claws. The current meaning is a phonetic loan. In simplified Chinese 丑 is also used to mean "ugly", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 醜.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | trhjuwX | [n̥]ruʔ | 2d earthly branch |
說文解字
《說文》：“丑，紐也。十二月，萬物動，用事。象手之形。時加丑，亦舉手時也。”
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)
Pictograph of the head of a cow.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ngjuw | [ŋ]ʷə (< uvular?) | ox |
說文解字
《說文》：“牛，大牲也，牛件也。件，事理也。象角頭三，封尾之形。”
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)