堕胎
duò​tāi

abortion

堕 duò, huī, huì fall Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 陏 represents the sound. Simplified form of 墮.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
陏
陏 Sound component
suí, duò follow

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

胎 tāi unborn child

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 台 represents the sound.

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

台
台 Sound component
tái platform

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartthojl̥ˤə fetus

說文解字

《說文》：“胎，婦孕三月也。从肉，台聲。”

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)

墮 fall Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 隋 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
隋
隋 Sound component
suí, duò, tuǒ Sui dynasty

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdwaXlˤojʔto fall
xjwiel̥ oj (W. dialect: *l̥ - > x-)destroy
Zhengzhangl̥ʰoːlʔ
l'oːlʔ
hlol
Unicodedhuɑ̌

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang