圈圈叉叉
quān​quān​chā​chā

tic-tac-toe

圈 quān, juàn circle, loop

Phonosemantic compound. 囗 represents the meaning and 卷 represents the sound.

Components

囗
囗 Meaning component
wéi, guó surround
卷
卷 SoundMeaning component
juǎn, juàn curl, roll

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartgjwenX[g](r)o[n]ʔ enclosure for pigs

說文解字

《說文》：“圈，養畜之閑也。从囗，卷聲。”

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)

叉 chā, chá, chǎ fork, prong

Depicts an object being held between fingers in the hand (又).

Components

又
又 Iconic component
yòu hand
◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts something being held in the hand.


Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

钗蚤杈衩汊釵

Meaning (0 of 4 verified)

钗杈汊釵

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰraːl
sʰreːl

說文解字

《說文》：“叉，手指相錯也。从又，象叉之形。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)