ōuōu

Europe

Original meaning: vomit

Simplified form of . Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "vomit". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Sound component
area
Meaning component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient
Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "vomit", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.

Sources

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

ōu Europe Traditional

Original meaning: vomit

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "vomit". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

Sound component
area
Meaning component
qiàn, qian yawn, deficient
Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "vomit", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangqoː
qoːʔ
Unicodeqǒu

說文解字

《說文》:“歐,吐也。从欠,區聲。”

Sources

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