Derived from 祝, with the 礻 (show) component being replaced by 口 (mouth) component when the meaning extended to "curse". Depicts a kneeling person (卩) opening their mouth (口) to pray for disaster to happen on someone.
Components
Historical Pronunciations
| Old Chinese | |
|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | tjus |
Sources
- Character origin
- Chinese Language Stack Exchange漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ngjoX | ŋ(r)aʔ | speak |
| ngjoH | ŋ(r)aʔ-s | tell |
說文解字
《說文》：“語，論也。从言，吾聲。”
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)