柱塞
zhù​sāi

plunger

柱 zhù pillar

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 主 represents the sound.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
主
主 Sound component
zhǔ master

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdrjuXm-t<r>oʔpillar
Zhengzhangtoʔ
doʔ
Unicodedjhiǒ

說文解字

楹也。从木主聲。

Sources

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

塞 sāi, sè stop up

Depicts two hands (廾) stuffing various objects (工) into an enclosed space (宀). The 土 (earth) component was added later.

Components

宀
宀 Iconic component
mián roof
工
工 Iconic component
gōng work
工
工 Iconic component
gōng work
廾
廾 Iconic component
gǒng two hands
土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

噻

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsojH[s]ˤək-s frontier
sojH[s]ˤək-s pass (n.)
sok[s]ˤək stop up, block (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“塞，隔也。从土，从。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1189-1190
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)