弩炮
nǔ​pào

ballista

弩 nǔ cross-bow

Phonosemantic compound. 弓 represents the meaning and 奴 represents the sound.

Components

弓
弓 Meaning component
gōng bow
奴
奴 Sound component
nú slave

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnuXC.nˤaʔcrossbow
Zhengzhangnaːʔ

說文解字

弓有臂者。《周禮》四弩：夾弩、庾弩、唐弩、大弩。从弓奴聲。

Sources

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

炮 pào large gun, cannon Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 包 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
包
包 Sound component
bāo wrap

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangpʰruːs
bruː

說文解字

《說文》：“炮，毛炙肉也。从火，包聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

砲 pào, báo, pū large gun, cannon Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 石 represents the meaning and 包 represents the sound.

Components

石
石 Meaning component
shí stone
包
包 Sound component
bāo wrap

Sources

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