桑帕约 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

sāng mulberry tree

Depicts the leaves of a mulberry tree (木). The leaves from a mulberry tree were the food silkworms would eat.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts the leaves from the mulberry trees. Modern form looks like unrelated 叒.

木 Iconic component

mù tree

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (2 of 7 verified)

丧嗓搡颡磉喪顙

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	sang	[s]ˤaŋ	mulberry tree

說文解字

《說文》：“桑，蠶所食葉木。从叒、木。”

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)

pà turban

Phonosemantic compound. 巾 represents the meaning and 白 represents the sound.

Components

巾 Meaning component

jīn cloth

白 Sound component

bái, bai white

Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	pʰraːɡs
	mbraːd

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang

yuē agreement Simplified

Original meaning: bind

Simplified form of 約. Phonosemantic compound. 纟 represents the meaning and 勺 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bind". The meaning later shifted to "agreement", "restrain", "keep under control", "appointment", and "approximately".

Components

纟 Meaning component

mì silk

纟 is a component form of 糸.

勺 Sound component

sháo, shuò, zhuó spoon

Change in sound

约 and 勺 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
约 *[q](r)ewk
勺 *m-tewk

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

药哟

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

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

yuē agreement Traditional

Original meaning: bind

Phonosemantic compound. 糹 represents the meaning and 勺 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bind". The meaning later shifted to "agreement", "restrain", "keep under control", "appointment", and "approximately".