勾芡
gōu​qiàn

thicken

勾 gōu hook

勾 originated as a variant of 句. 口 represents the sound and 丩 represents the meaning and the sound.

Components

丩
丩 SoundMeaning component
jiū join
口
口 Sound component
kǒu, kou mouth
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 口 than it was in ancient scripts.

Component uses

Sound (3 of 5 verified)

构购沟钩鈎

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

钩鈎

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkuw[k]ˤ(r)ocurved
kuwH[k]ˤ(r)ok-sloan for 彀 draw a bow to the full
Zhengzhangkoː
koːs

Sources

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

芡 qiàn plant allied to the waterlily

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

plant

欠
欠 Sound component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡromʔ

說文解字

雞頭也。从艸欠聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)