xūn​kǎo

smoke

xūn smoke

Depicts fragrant herbs inside a bag (). The (fire) component was later added to emphasize that fragrant herbs were usually smoked with fire.

Components

Iconic component
dōng east

Depicts a bag.

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

Depicts fragrant herbs inside a bag.

Meaning component
biāo, huǒ fire

is a component form of .

Character Evolution

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 Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxjunqʰu[n] smoke (v.); vapor, odor

說文解字

《說文》:“熏,火煙上出也。从屮,从黑。屮黑,熏黑也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

kǎo bake, roast

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
huǒ fire
Sound component
kǎo examine

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkʰluːʔ

Sources

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