咳痰
ké​tán

expectorate

咳 hāi, ké cough

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

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
亥
亥 Sound component
hài, jiē 12th terrestrial branch

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkhojHkʰˤək-s cough

說文解字

《說文》：“咳，小兒笑也。从口，亥聲。孩，古文咳从子。”

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)

痰 tán phlegm

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

Components

疒
疒 Meaning component
nè sick
炎
炎 Sound component
yán flame

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangl'aːm

Sources

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