孤独 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

gūdú HSK6

lonely

gū orphan

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

Components

子 Meaning component

zi, zǐ child

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

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ku	kʷˤa	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)

dú alone Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 蜀 represents the sound. Simplified form of 獨.

Components

犭 Meaning component

quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

虫 Simplified component

chóng bug, insect

Shorthand for the phonetic 蜀 component in the traditional character 獨.

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

dú alone Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 蜀 represents the sound.

Components

犭 Meaning component

quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

蜀 Sound component

shǔ short name for Sichuan

Change in sound

獨 and 蜀 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
獨 *[d]ˤok
蜀 *[d]ok

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	duwk	[d]ˤok	alone; only

說文解字

《說文》：“獨，犬相得而鬭也。从犬，蜀聲。羊為羣，犬為獨也。一曰北囂山有獨獸，如虎，白身，豕鬣，尾如馬。”

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)