桅杆
wéi​gān

mast

桅 wéi mast of ship

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

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
危
危 Sound component
wēi dangerous

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkrolʔ

說文解字

黃木，可染者。从木危聲。

Sources

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

杆 gān, gǎn pole

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 干 represents the sound. Simplified form of 桿.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
干
干 Sound component
gàn, gān interfere

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkaːns
Unicodegɑn

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica