Pictograph of a hand (又) grabbing an ear (耳). In ancient China, the ears of opponents in battle were cut off and collected as tokens of victory.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tshuwX | tsʰˤoʔ | take |
| tshjuX | tsʰoʔ | take | |
| tshjuH | [ts]ʰoʔ-s | take (a wife) |
說文解字
《說文》：“取，捕取也。从又，从耳。《周禮》：‘獲者取左耳。’《司馬法》曰：‘載獻聝。’聝者，耳也。”
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)
Original meaning: scrotum
Pictograph of the scrotum of a male's penis. The meaning later shifted to "egg", "ovum", and "spawn".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Meaning (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | lwaX | k.rˤorʔ (dialect: *-r > *-j) | egg |
| lwanX | k.rˤorʔ | egg |
說文解字
《說文》：“卵，凡物無乳者卵生。象形。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.901-902
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)