lì​sè​zào​méi

red-winged laughingthrush

beautiful Simplified

Simplified form of . Pictograph of a deer (鹿) with two beautiful antlers. The traditional component 鹿 was removed for simplification.

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts two beautiful antlers on the head of a deer.

鹿 Deleted component
deer

The traditional component 鹿 was removed for simplification.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 7 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangreːls

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

color

Original meaning: press down

Depicts a kneeling person () being pushed down by a hand (). Based on the original meaning "press down", now written as . The current meaning "color" is a phonetic loan.

Components

Iconic component
zhǎo, zhuǎ hand, claw
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
Iconic component
jié person kneeling
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsriks.rək color; countenance

說文解字

《說文》:“色,顏气也。从人,从卪。,古文。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.711-712
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

zào noise

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
SoundMeaning component
zào, sào, qiāo chirping of birds

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsawHC.sˤaw-sshout
Zhengzhangsaːws
Unicodesɑ̀u

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

méi Simplified

Components

Sound component
méi eyebrows
Meaning component
niǎo bird

bird

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

beautiful Traditional

Pictograph of a deer (鹿) with two beautiful antlers.

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts two beautiful antlers on the head of a deer.

鹿
鹿 Iconic component
deer

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 6 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartlejH[r]ˤe-s symmetrical

說文解字

《說文》:“麗,旅行也。鹿之性見食急則必旅行。从鹿,丽聲。《禮》‘麗皮納聘’,蓋鹿皮也。,古文;,篆文麗字。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

Traditional

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmril

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang