俯看
fǔ​kàn

overlook

俯 fǔ bow down

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 府 represents the sound. Simplified form of 俛.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

府
府 Sound component
fǔ government

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangpoʔ
Unicodebiǒ

Sources

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

看 kàn, kān look

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 倝 represents the sound.

Components

倝
倝 SoundRemnant component
gàn sunrise
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 倝 than it was in ancient scripts.
目
目 Meaning component
mù eye

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhankʰˤa[r] to watch, guard
khanH[kʰ]ˤa[r]-s gaze at

說文解字

《說文》：“看，睎也。从手下目。，看或从倝。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.268-269
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)