桔槔
jié​gāo

well sweep

桔 jú Chinese bellflower

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

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
吉
吉 Sound component
jí lucky

Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkiːd

說文解字

桔梗，藥名。从木吉聲。一曰直木。

Sources

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

槔 gāo

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

wood

皋
皋 Sound component
gāo the high land along a river

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica