橄榄球
gǎn​lǎn​qiú

rugby/football

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

球 qiú ball

Phonosemantic compound. 𤣩 represents the meaning and 求 represents the sound.

Components

𤣩
𤣩 Meaning component
yù jade

𤣩 is a component form of 玉.

求
求 Sound component
qiú seek

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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-Sagartgjuw[g](r)[u] 'ball'?

說文解字

《說文》：“球，玉聲也。从玉，求聲。璆，球或从翏。”

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