孤孑
gū​jié

solitary

孤 gū orphan

Phonosemantic compound. 子 represents the meaning and 瓜 represents the sound.

Components

子
子 Meaning component
zi, zǐ child
瓜
瓜 Sound component
guā melon

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

菰

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkukʷˤa orphan

說文解字

《說文》：“孤，無父也。从子，瓜聲。”

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)

孑 jié remaining

Depicts a child with a left arm but no right arm. Compare to 孓 (child with no left arm) and 了 (child with no arms).

Components

子
子 IconicRemnant component
zi, zǐ child

A child (子) without a right arm.


Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangked

說文解字

《說文》：“孑，無右臂也。从了，。象形。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.972
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)