沙漏
shā​lòu

hourglass

沙 shā sand

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

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

少
少 SoundIconic component
shǎo, shao, shào few

少 depicts four small grains of sand.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 8 verified)

莎鲨娑裟挲痧桫鯊

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsraesˤraj sand

說文解字

《說文》：“沙，水石也。从水，从少，水少沙見。楚東有沙水。譚長說，沙，或从尐。”

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)

漏 lòu leak

Originally written as 屚, which depicts rainwater (雨) leaking through a house roof (屋). The 氵 (water) component was added later to clarify the meaning.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

屚
屚 SoundIconic component
lòu to leak

Depicts rainwater (雨) leaking through a house roof (屋).

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartluwH[Nə-r]ˤok-s leak (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“漏，以銅受水刻節，晝夜百刻。从水，屚聲。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.1011, 1025許進雄《新編進階甲骨文字典: 甲骨文發現120周年紀念版》p.204
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)