橄榄油
gǎn​lǎn​yóu

olive oil

橄 gǎn olive

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

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
敢
敢 Sound component
gǎn to dare

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangklaːmʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

榄 lǎn olive Simplified

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree

tree

览
览 Sound component
lǎn look at

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

油 yóu oil

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 由 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

由
由 Sound component
yóu cause

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyuw[l][u] flow(ing)

說文解字

《說文》：“油，水。出武陵孱陵西，東南〔北〕入江。从水，由聲。”

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)

欖 olive Traditional

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

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
覽
覽 Sound component
lǎn look at

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡ·raːmʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang