墨卡托
Mò​kǎ​tuō

Mercator

墨 mò ink

Original meaning: tattoo the face for a crime committed

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 黑 represents the sound. Originally written as 黑, which depicts a person whose face has been tattooed.

Components

黑
黑 SoundIconic component
hēi black

Depicts a person whose face has been tattooed.

Change in sound
土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmokC.mˤək ink

說文解字

《說文》：“墨，書墨也。从土，从黑，黑亦聲。”

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)

卡 kǎ stuck

Origin unclear, but typically explained as being stuck between something above (上) and something below (下). The uses of 卡 to mean "card" or "calorie" are foreign phonetic loans.

Components

上
上 Iconic component
shàng, shang up
下
下 Iconic component
xià, xia under

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

咔胩佧

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

托 tuō to hold up, support

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 乇 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

乇
乇 Sound component
tuō, zhé to depend on

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangl̥ʰaːɡ

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang