吐痰 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

tǔtán

spit

tǔ, tù vomit

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

Components

口 Meaning component

kǒu, kou mouth

土 Sound component

tǔ earth

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	thuX	tʰˤaʔ	eject from mouth, spit
	thuH	tʰˤaʔ-s	vomit
Zhengzhang		l̥ʰaːʔ
		l̥ʰaːs
Unicode	tǒ

說文解字

寫也。从口土聲。

Sources

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

tán phlegm

Phonosemantic compound. 疒 represents the meaning and 炎 represents the sound.

Components

疒 Meaning component

nè sick

炎 Sound component

yán flame

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	l'aːm

Sources

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