封锁
fēng​suǒ HSK7

seal off

封 fēng letter

Original meaning: create a boundary with plants

Depicts using hands (寸) to cultivate plants (丰). Based on the original meaning "create a boundary with plants". The meaning later shifted to "divide off", "seal", and "letter".

Components

寸
寸 Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Depicts a hand.

丰
丰 SoundIconic component
fēng luxuriant

Depicts a plant growing in the ground.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

葑犎幫

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpjowngp(r)oŋ raise a mound; enfeoff

說文解字

《說文》：“封，爵諸矦之土也。从之，从土，从寸，守其制度也。公侯百里，伯七十里，子男五十里。，古文封省。，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)

锁 suǒ lock Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 钅 represents the meaning and 𭕆 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鎖.

Components

钅
钅 Meaning component
jīn metal

钅 is a component form of 金.

𭕆
𭕆 Sound component
suǒ fragments

Sources

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

鎖 suǒ lock Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 釒 represents the meaning and 𧴪 represents the sound.

Components

釒
釒 Meaning component
jīn metal
𧴪
𧴪 Sound component
suǒ fragments

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartswaX[s]ˤojʔ chain

說文解字

《說文新附》：“鎖，鐵鎖，門鍵也。从金，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)