墓坑
mù​kēng

burial pit

墓 mù grave

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

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
莫
莫 Sound component
mò, mo do not

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmuHC.mˤak-sgrave (n.)
Zhengzhangmaːɡs
Unicodemò

說文解字

丘也。从土莫聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

坑 kēng pit

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 亢 represents the sound. Simplified form of 阬.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
亢
亢 Sound component
kàng, gāng, gēng high

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkʰraːŋ
Unicodekæng

Sources

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