叟
sǒu

old man

Original meaning: search for

Depicts a hand (又) holding a torch (火) in a dark room (宀) looking for something. Based on the original meaning "search for", now written as 搜. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

宀
宀 Iconic component
mián roof
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 宀 than it was in ancient scripts.
火
火 Iconic component
huǒ fire
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 火 than it was in ancient scripts.
又
又 Iconic component
yòu hand

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 14 verified)

艘搜瘦嫂嗖飕馊锼溲螋瞍颼餿鄋

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

馊瞍餿

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsuwXs-ruʔ (dialect: > *sruʔ > MC srjuwX > sruwX > suwX)old man

說文解字

《說文》：“叜，老也。从又，从灾。闕。，籀文仌寸。，或从人。”

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)