曲
qǔqūQū HSK5

bent, crooked

Pictograph of a bent ruler or L-shaped tool.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

蛐麯

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhjowkkʰ(r)ok to bend

說文解字

《說文》：“曲，象器曲受物之形。或說，曲，蠶薄也。曲說文古文，古文曲。”

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)

麯 qū yeast, leaven Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 麥 represents the meaning and 曲 represents the sound.

Components

麥
麥 Meaning component
mài wheat
曲
曲 Sound component
qū, qǔ bent, crooked

Sources

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