波谷 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

bōgǔ

trough

bō waves

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

Components

氵 Meaning component

shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

皮 Sound component

pí skin

Change in sound

波 and 皮 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
波 *pˤaj
皮 *m-[p](r)aj

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

婆啵菠

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

啵

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pa	pˤaj	wave (n.)

說文解字

《說文》：“波，水涌流也。从水，皮聲。”

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)

gǔ valley, ravine

Depicts an opening (口) between two mountain streams.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts two mountain streams.

口 Iconic component

kǒu, kou mouth

Depicts an opening between two mountain streams.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kuwk	C.qˤok	valley

說文解字

《說文》：“谷，泉出通川為谷。从水半見，出於口。”

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)

波 bō waves

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

谷 gǔ valley, ravine

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (3 of 7 verified)

Meaning (0 of 4 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

bō waves

gǔ valley, ravine