困住
kùn​zhù

trap

困 kùn to trap, surround

Original meaning: doorway, threshold

Depicts a wooden (木) door frame (囗). Based on the original meaning "doorway, threshold". The meaning later expanded to "obstruct" and "trap".

Components

囗
囗 Iconic component
wéi, guó surround

Depicts a door frame.

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

捆阃悃睏閫

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkhwonHkʰˤu[n]-s obstruct; distress

說文解字

《說文》：“困，故廬也。从木在囗中。，古文困。”

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)

住 zhù reside

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 主 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

主
主 Sound component
zhǔ master

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdrjuHdro(ʔ)-s stop (v.)

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart