告老还乡 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

gào tell

Pictograph of a tongue extending from an open mouth. Visually similar to 舌 (tongue).

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a tongue extending from an open mouth.

口 Iconic component

kǒu, kou mouth

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (3 of 14 verified)

造靠浩酷皓窖诰鹄梏锆郜牿鋯鵠

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

诰

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kawH	kˤuk-s	announce, inform
	kowk	kˤuk	announce, inform

說文解字

《說文》：“告，牛觸人，角箸橫木，所以告人也。从口，从牛。《易》曰：‘僮牛之告。’”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.95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)

lǎo old

Pictograph of an old person with long hair bent over and leaning on a cane.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	lawX	C.rˤuʔ	old

說文解字

《說文》：“老，考也。七十曰老。从人、毛、匕。言須髮變白也。”

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)

hái, huán still, return Simplified

Simplified form of 還. 辶 represents the meaning. 不 replaces the traditional phonetic component 睘.

Components

不 Simplified component

bù, bu no

Shorthand for the 睘 component in the traditional character 還.

辶 Meaning component

chuò walk

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical images: Academia Sinica

xiāng hometown Simplified

Simplified form of 鄉. Pictograph of two people facing each other, kneeling down to share a meal. Based on the original meaning "feast" or "offer food", now written as 饗. The meaning later shifted to "hometown". The right two components were removed for simplification.

Components

卩 Iconic component

jié person kneeling

Depicts a kneeling person facing right.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 卩 than it was in ancient scripts.

飠 Deleted component

eat

卩 Deleted component

jié person kneeling

Depicts a kneeling person facing left.

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

飨芗

Simplified (0 of 1 verified)

芗

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

hái, huán still Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 辶 represents the meaning and 睘 represents the sound.

Components

辶 Meaning component

chuò walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

睘 Sound component

qióng round

Change in sound

還 and 睘 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
還 *[ɢ]ʷˤ<r>en
睘 *[ɢ]ʷˤ<r>en

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	hwaen	[ɢ]ʷˤ<r>en	turn around; return
	zjwen	s-ɢʷen	turn around, return; agile

說文解字

復也。从辵瞏聲。

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)

xiāng hometown Traditional

Original meaning: feast, offer food

Pictograph of two people facing each other, kneeling down to share a meal. Based on the original meaning "feast" or "offer food", now written as 饗. The meaning later shifted to "hometown".