叱骂
chì​mà

berate

叱 chì, huà, é scold

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 七 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
七
七 Sound component
qī seven
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 七 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangn̥ʰjid
Unicodechit

說文解字

《說文》：“叱，訶也。从口，七聲。”

Sources

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

骂 mà scold Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 吅 represents the meaning and 马 represents the sound. Simplified form of 罵.

Components

吅
吅 Meaning component
xuān, sòng noise

mouth

马
马 Sound component
mǎ horse

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

罵 mà scold Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 网 represents the meaning and 馬 represents the sound.

Components

网
网 Meaning component
wǎng net

Represents "catching" someone with words.

馬
馬 Sound component
mǎ horse

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmaeHC.mˤra-s scold, revile

說文解字

《說文》：“罵，詈也。从网，馬聲。”

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)