ào​lú

Oulu

aò, ào, yù mysterious Simplified

Original meaning: to store

Simplified form of . Depicts two hands () hiding rice () in a corner or a container. Based on the original meaning "to store". The meaning later shifted to "obscure", "profound", and "mysterious".

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a hidden corner or a container.

Iconic component
rice

Depicts grains of rice.

Iconic component
gǒng two hands

Depicts two hands.

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

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

說文解字

宛也。室之西南隅。从宀𢍏聲。

Sources

lú, lǘ, léi rice vessel Simplified

Original meaning: stove

Simplified form of . Originally a pictograph of a stove, based on the original meaning "stove", now written as . The and components were added later. In modern Mandarin this character is usually only used for its sound in foreign loan words.

Components

tiger
Change in sound
characterless component

Depicts a stove.

Deleted component
mǐn, mǐng dish

The traditional component was removed for simplification.

Component uses

Sound (0 of 9 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Sources

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

mysterious Traditional

Original meaning: to store

Depicts two hands () hiding rice () in a corner or a container. Based on the original meaning "to store". The meaning later shifted to "obscure", "profound", and "mysterious".

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a hidden corner or a container.

Iconic component
rice

Depicts grains of rice. Modern form looks like .

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
Iconic component
gǒng two hands

Depicts two hands.

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

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'awHʔˤuk-s southwest corner of a house
'juwkʔ(r)uk cove in the bank of a stream

說文解字

《說文》:“奧,宛也。室之西南隅。从宀,聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

rice vessel Traditional

Original meaning: stove

Originally a pictograph of a stove, based on the original meaning "stove", now written as . The and components were added later. In modern Mandarin this character is usually only used for its sound in foreign loan words.

Components

Sound component
tiger
Change in sound
Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a stove. Unrelated to .

Meaning component
mǐn, mǐng dish
Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "stove", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 12 verified)

Remnant (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangb·raː
Unicodelo

說文解字

《說文》:“盧,飲器也。从皿,聲。,籀文盧。”

Sources

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