曹刚川
Cáo Gāng​chuān

Cao Gangchuan

曹 cáo plaintiff and defendant

Phonosemantic compound. 㯥 represents the sound and 曰 represents the meaning. Depicts a pair (㯥) of people speaking (曰) against each other, i.e. a plaintiff and a defendant. The meaning later expanded to "of the same generation".

Components

㯥
㯥 SoundMeaning component
cáo, zāo pair

The character 東 was originally a pictograph of a basket. This component is a pair of 東 merged together.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 㯥 than it was in ancient scripts.
曰
曰 Meaning component
yuē say

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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 (1 of 8 verified)

遭糟槽嘈漕螬艚蹧

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzawN-tsˤu come together; pair

說文解字

《說文》：，獄之兩曹也。在廷東，从，治事者，从曰。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.417
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

刚 gāng hard Simplified

Simplified form of 剛. Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 岡 represents the sound.

Components

冈
冈 Sound component
gāng ridge or crest of hill
刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

川 chuān stream

Pictograph of a river.

Character Evolution

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
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 10 verified)

顺训圳驯氚钏訓順馴釧

Meaning (1 of 4 verified)

圳侃夼巟

Iconic (1)

㐬

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyhwent.l̥u[n] (MC -jwen is irregular)stream, river

說文解字

《說文》：“川，貫穿通流水也。《虞書》曰：‘濬巜距川’，言深巜之水會為川也。”

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)

剛 gāng hard Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 岡 represents the sound.

Components

岡
岡 Sound component
gāng ridge or crest of hill
刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkangkˤaŋ strong; hard

說文解字

《說文》：“剛，彊，斷也。从刀，岡聲。”

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)