买卖
mǎi​maimǎi​mài HSK5

trade

买 mǎi buy Simplified

Pictograph of money (貝) coming out of a netted bag (网). The simplified character 买 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 買.

Components

网
网 IconicSimplified component
wǎng net
头
头 Simplified component
tóu, tou head

Shorthand for the 貝 component in the traditional character 買. Shells were used as currency in ancient China.

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

卖荬

Meaning (1)

卖

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

卖 mài, mai sell Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 出 represents the meaning and 买 represents the sound. Simplified form of 賣.

Components

出
出 Meaning component
chū go out
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 出 than it was in ancient scripts.
买
买 SoundMeaning component
mǎi buy

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

赎渎牍椟觌

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

赎犊黩

Simplified (1)

读

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

買 mǎi buy Traditional

Pictograph of money (貝) coming out of a netted bag (网).

Components

网
网 Iconic component
wǎng net
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 网 than it was in ancient scripts.
貝
貝 Iconic component
bèi sea shell

Shells were used as currency in ancient China.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

賣蕒

Meaning (1)

賣

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmeaXmˤrajʔ buy

說文解字

《說文》：“買，市也。从网、貝。《孟子》曰：‘登壟斷而网市利。’”

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)

賣 mài, mai sell Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 出 represents the meaning and 買 represents the sound.

Components

出
出 Meaning component
chū go out
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 出 than it was in ancient scripts.
買
買 SoundMeaning component
mǎi buy

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

牘贖瀆

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

犢贖黷

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmeaHmˤrajʔ-s sell

說文解字

《說文》：“，出物貨也。从出，从買。”

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)