Original meaning: musical instrument
Depicts a bell-shaped musical instrument. The current meaning of 南 is a phonetic loan.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nom | nˤ[ə]m | south |
說文解字
《說文》：“南，艸木至南方有枝任也。从，聲。，古文。”
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)
Simplified
Original meaning: to store
Simplified form of 奧. Depicts two hands (廾) hiding rice (米) in a corner or a container. Based on the original meaning "to store". The meaning later shifted to "obscure", "profound", and "mysterious".
Components
Component uses
說文解字
宛也。室之西南隅。从宀𢍏聲。
Sources
- Character origin
- 鄔可晶《釋「奧」》Wiktionary (JA)
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Depicts two hands (廾) stuffing various objects (工) into an enclosed space (宀). The 土 (earth) component was added later.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sojH | [s]ˤək-s | frontier |
| sojH | [s]ˤək-s | pass (n.) | |
| sok | [s]ˤək | stop up, block (v.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“塞，隔也。从土，从。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1189-1190
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | thej | l̥ˤ[ə]j | stairs |
說文解字
《說文》：“梯，木階也。从木，弟聲。”
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)
Traditional
Original meaning: to store
Depicts two hands (廾) hiding rice (米) in a corner or a container. Based on the original meaning "to store". The meaning later shifted to "obscure", "profound", and "mysterious".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'awH | ʔˤuk-s | southwest corner of a house |
| 'juwk | ʔ(r)uk | cove in the bank of a stream |
說文解字
《說文》：“奧，宛也。室之西南隅。从宀，聲。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 鄔可晶《釋「奧」》Wiktionary (JA)
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)