好歹
hǎo​dǎi HSK7

anyway

好 hǎo, hāo, hào good

It is good (好) for a woman (女) and her child (子) to be together.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
子
子 Meaning component
zi, zǐ child

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

孬

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

孬

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartxawXqʰˤuʔ good
xawHqʰˤuʔ-s love, like (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“好，美也。从女、子。”

Sources

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

歹 dǎi, è, dāi evil, bad

Original meaning: cracked wooden post

Variant of 歺. Pictograph of a wooden post or digging tool with a cracked bottom. Similar to 才 and 弋. The meaning later shifted to "bad" and "evil".

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (6 of 27 verified)

残殊殖歼殆殉殃殡殁殓殒殚殇殛殄殍殂殪殯殗殫殤殘殞殭殮殲

Iconic (2)

死列

Sound (1)

列

Distinguishing (1)

殁

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

薤

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangŋaːd

說文解字

《說文》：“歹，骨之殘也。从半冎。讀若櫱岸之櫱。，古文歺。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.333
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)