多工作业 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

duō much

Depicts two pieces of meat together to convey the meaning "much" or "plentiful". In ancient China meat was a rare treat. Unrelated to 夕.

Components

肉 Iconic component

ròu meat

Depicts a piece of meat.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 肉 than it was in ancient scripts.

肉 Iconic component

ròu meat

Depicts a piece of meat.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 肉 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (3 of 6 verified)

移爹侈哆黟眵

Meaning (3 of 4 verified)

够夥奓夠

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ta	[t.l]ˤaj	many

說文解字

《說文》：“多，重也。从重夕。夕者，相繹也，故為多。重夕為多，重日為。，古文多。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.557
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

gōng work

Depicts a tool with a blade.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (11 of 23 verified)

空功红项江攻贡虹巩缸扛杠肛汞邛讧紅貢豇項仝舡訌 show all 23 show fewer

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kuwng	kˤoŋ	officer
	kuwng	kˤoŋ	work

說文解字

《說文》：“工，巧飾也。象人有規榘也。與巫同意。，古文工从彡。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.381-382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)

zuò make

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 乍 represents the sound.

Components

亻 Meaning component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

乍 Sound component

zhà, zuò suddenly

Change in sound

作 and 乍 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
作 *[ts]ˤak-s
乍 *[dz]ˤrak-s

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1)

做

Meaning (1)

做

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsak	[ts]ˤak	do, work
	tsuH	[ts]ˤak-s	do, work

說文解字

《說文》：“作，起也。从人，从乍。”

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)

yè profession Simplified

Original meaning: attack

Simplified character from the top 5 strokes of the traditional 業. Depicts a person (大) carrying a weapon (丵). Based on the original meaning "attack". The meaning later shifted to "expand territory" and "develop business".

Components

丵 Simplified Remnant component

zhuó chisel

Shorthand for the 丵 component. Depicts a chisel-shaped weapon.

大 Deleted component

dà, dài big

Depicts a person.

Component uses

Simplified (2)

显虚

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

邺

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.168-169Chinese Language Stack Exchange
Readings & variants: Unicode

yè profession Traditional

Original meaning: attack

Depicts a person (大) carrying a weapon (丵). Based on the original meaning "attack". The meaning later shifted to "expand territory" and "develop business".