guā​hú​dāo

razor

guā to scrape, shave

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and 𠯑 represents the sound.

Components

𠯑
𠯑 Sound component
guā block the mouth
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 𠯑 than it was in ancient scripts.
Meaning component
dāo knife

is a component form of .

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkwaet[kʷˤ]r[a]t scrape (v.)

說文解字

《說文》:“刮,掊把也。从刀,聲。”

Sources

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

beard Simplified

Original meaning: flesh under the chin of a cow

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "flesh under the chin of a cow", which later shifted to "beard" (now written as in traditional characters). Also used pejoratively to refer to foreigners from central Asia, who tended to have more beards than Han Chinese people. This meaning also shifted to "reckless" and "outrageous".

Components

Sound component
old
Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of .

Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "flesh under the chin of a cow", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 13 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[g]ˤa foreigners in the north

說文解字

《說文》:“胡,牛垂也。从肉,古聲。”

Sources

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

dāo knife

Pictograph of a knife.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (3 of 5 verified)

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttawC.tˤaw knife

說文解字

《說文》:“刀,兵也。象形。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.352
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

beard Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
biāo, piào, shān long hair
Sound component
beard

Sources

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