利玛窦
Lì Mǎ​dòu

Matteo Ricci

利 lì, li benefit

Depicts harvesting grain (禾) with a blade (刂). Harvest was the main source of profit in agricultural societies.

Components

禾
禾 Iconic component
hé grain stalk
刂
刂 Iconic component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 11 verified)

黎莉梨犁俐痢蜊猁脷唎悧

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

悧

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartlijHC.ri[t]-s sharp; profit

說文解字

《說文》：“利，銛也。从刀；和然後利，从和省。《易》曰：‘利者，義之和也。’”

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)

玛 mǎ agate stone Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 玉 represents the meaning and 马 represents the sound. Simplified form of 瑪.

Components

𤣩
𤣩 Meaning component
yù jade
马
马 Sound component
mǎ horse

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

窦 dòu, dú surname Simplified

Components

穴
穴 Meaning component
xué, jué cave
𧸇
𧸇 SoundSimplified component
yù to sell

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

瑪 agate stone Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 玉 represents the meaning and 馬 represents the sound.

Components

𤣩
𤣩 Meaning component
yù jade
馬
馬 Sound component
mǎ horse

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangmraːʔ
Unicodemǎ

Sources

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

竇 surname Traditional

Components

穴
穴 Meaning component
xué, jué cave
𧸇
𧸇 Sound component
yù to sell

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartduwHlˤok-s hole; drain

說文解字

《說文》：“竇，空也。从穴，瀆省聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)