bàn​pǔ​yù

Asian dowitcher

bàn half

Depicts separating a cow () into two halves ().

Components

Iconic component
eight

Depicts splitting into two halves.

Iconic component
niú cow
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 11 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpanHpˤan-s half

說文解字

《說文》:“半,物中分也。从八,从牛。牛為物大,可以分也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.89-90漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

webbed feet of waterfowl

Components

Meaning component
foot

foot

Sound component
(beat against), tedious

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangpoːɡ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

yù, shù snipe Simplified

Components

Sound component
yù, jué, xù bore with awl
Meaning component
niǎo bird

bird

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

snipe Traditional

Components

Sound component
yù, jué, xù bore with awl
Meaning component
niǎo bird

bird

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɢʷid

說文解字

知天將雨鳥也。从鳥矞聲。《禮記》曰:“知天文者冠鷸。”

Sources

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