多灾多难 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)

zāi calamity Simplified

Depicts a fire (火) burning a building (宀).

Components

宀 Iconic component

mián roof

火 Iconic component

huǒ fire

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsoj	[ts]ˤə	calamity

說文解字

《說文》：“烖，天火曰烖。从火，聲。灾，或从宀、火；，古文从才；災，籀文从。”

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)

nán, nan, nàn difficult Simplified

Original meaning: type of bird

Simplified form of 難. Phonosemantic compound. 隹 represents the meaning and 𦰩 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "type of bird". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

又 Simplified component

yòu again

Shorthand for the 𦰩 component in the traditional character 難.

隹 Meaning component

zhuī, cuī, wéi bird

Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

滩摊瘫傩

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

zāi calamity Traditional

Depicts a fire (火) and a flood (𡿧).

Components

𡿧 Sound Iconic component

zāi flood

火 Iconic component

huǒ fire

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsoj	[ts]ˤə	calamity

說文解字

《說文》：“烖，天火曰烖。从火，聲。灾，或从宀、火；，古文从才；災，籀文从。”

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)

nán, nan, nàn difficult Traditional

Original meaning: type of bird

Phonosemantic compound. 隹 represents the meaning and 𦰩 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "type of bird". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.