爬墙
pá​qiáng

be unfaithful

爬 pá crawl, climb

Phonosemantic compound. 爪 represents the meaning and 巴 represents the sound.

Components

爪
爪 Meaning component
zhǎo, zhuǎ hand, claw
巴
巴 Sound component
ba, bā to wish

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbae[b]ˤra climb on all fours

Sources

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

墙 qiáng wall Simplified

Simplified form of 牆. Phonosemantic compound. 爿 represents the sound and 嗇 represents the meaning.

Components

土
土 Simplified component
tǔ earth

Shorthand for the phonetic 爿 component in the traditional character 牆.

啬
啬 Iconic component
sè stingy

Depicts a building for storing grain.

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

牆 qiáng wall Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 爿 represents the sound and 嗇 represents the meaning.

Components

爿
爿 Sound component
pán, qiáng piece of wood
嗇
嗇 Iconic component
stingy

Depicts a building for storing grain.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangzaŋ
Unicodedzhiɑng

說文解字

《說文》：“牆，垣蔽也。从嗇，爿聲。，籀文从二禾；，籀文亦从二來。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)