探骊得珠
tàn​lí​dé​zhū

grasp essence

探 tàn, tan explore, find

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 罙 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

罙
罙 Sound component
shēn deep
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartthoml̥ˤ[ə]m put the hand into and test

說文解字

《說文》：“，遠取之也。从手，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)

骊 lí, chí a pure black horse Simplified

Components

马
马 Meaning component
mǎ horse

horse

丽
丽 Sound component
lì beautiful

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

得 de, dé, děi obtain

Depicts a hand (寸) grabbing a shell (貝), used as currency in ancient China, to convey the meaning "get". Originally written as 㝵. The 彳 (movement) component was added later.

Components

彳
彳 Meaning component
chì, fú walk

彳 is a component form of 行.

貝
貝 Iconic component
bèi sea shell
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 貝 than it was in ancient scripts.
寸
寸 Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Depicts a hand.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
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 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

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

嘚

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttoktˤək obtain

說文解字

《說文》：“得，行有所得也。从彳，聲。，古文省彳。”

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)

珠 zhū precious stone

Phonosemantic compound. 王 represents the meaning and 朱 represents the sound.

Components

王
王 Meaning component
wáng king
朱
朱 Sound component
zhū, shū red pigment

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtjo
Unicodejio

說文解字

蚌之陰精。从玉朱聲。《春秋國語》曰：“珠以禦火灾”是也。

Sources

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

驪 a pure black horse Traditional

Components

馬
馬 Meaning component
mǎ horse

horse

麗
麗 Sound component
lì beautiful

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangreːl
rel
Unicodeliɛ

說文解字

馬深黑色。从馬麗聲。

Sources

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