jī​lǎo

gay man

foundation

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Sound component
its, his, (3p possessive)
Meaning component
earth

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 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-Sagartkik(r)ə base (n.)

說文解字

《說文》:“基,牆始也。从土,其聲。”

Sources

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

lǎo, liáo (Cant.) man

An old  person  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
rén person
SoundMeaning component
lǎo old

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode