照猫画虎
zhào​māo​huà​hǔ

imitate

照 zhào shine

Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 昭 represents the sound.

Components

灬
灬 Meaning component
biāo, huǒ fire

灬 is a component form of 火.

昭
昭 SoundMeaning component
zhāo, zhào bright

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 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-SagarttsyewHtaw-s shine on

說文解字

《說文》：“照，明也。从火，昭聲。”

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)

猫 māo cat Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 苗 represents the sound. Simplified form of 貓.

Components

犭
犭 Meaning component
quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

苗
苗 Sound component
miáo sprouts

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmrew

Sources

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

画 huà a painting Simplified

Pictograph of a hand holding a writing utensil (聿) and drawing something. The simplified character 画 was adapted from a variant.

Components

畫
聿 Deleted component
yù writing brush
◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a picture being drawn.

Sources

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

虎 hǔ, hu tiger

Pictograph of a tiger.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (2 of 5 verified)

彪琥號虒猇

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

唬琥處

Iconic (2)

虢冡

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartxuXqʰˤraʔ (W dialect: *qˤʰr- >r̥ˤ- > x-)tiger

說文解字

《說文》：“虎，山獸之君。从虍，虎足象人足，象形……虝，古文虎。，亦古文虎。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.409
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

貓 māo cat Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 豸 represents the meaning and 苗 represents the sound.

Components

豸
豸 Meaning component
zhì (dhole), beast
苗
苗 Sound component
miáo sprouts

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmaewC.mˤraw cat

說文解字

《說文新附》：“貓，貍屬。从豸，苗聲。”

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)

畫 huà a painting Traditional

Pictograph of a hand holding a writing utensil (聿) and drawing something.

Components

聿
聿 Iconic component
yù writing brush
周
周 Iconic component
zhōu cycle

Depicts a carved jade object.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 周 than it was in ancient scripts.
乂
乂 Unknown component
yì, ài mow grass

Upper frame? of the drawing, found in the simplified form and possibly in the variant 𬚪

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 乂 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

劃

Meaning (1)

劃

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthweaHC-gʷˤrek-s drawing (n.)
hweakgʷˤrek draw (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“畫，界也。象田四界，聿所以畫之。，古文畫省。亦古文畫。”

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)