怪胎 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

guàitāi

freak

guài strange

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 圣 represents the sound.

Components

忄 Meaning component

xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

圣 Sound component

shèng sage, holy

Change in sound

怪 and 圣 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
怪 *kruːds
圣 *kʰuːd

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kweajH	[k]ʷˤrə-s	extraordinary

說文解字

《說文》：“怪，異也。从心，圣聲。”

Sources

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

tāi unborn child

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 台 represents the sound.

Components

⺼ Meaning component

ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

台 Sound component

tái platform

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	thoj	l̥ˤə	fetus

說文解字

《說文》：“胎，婦孕三月也。从肉，台聲。”

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)

怪 guài strange

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

胎 tāi unborn child

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

guài strange

tāi unborn child