牙垢
yá​gòu

plaque

牙 yá tooth

Depicts top and bottom teeth touching each other.

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

Component uses

Sound (7 of 18 verified)

与呀雅耶邪讶鸦芽伢蚜與迓砑岈訝鴉枒玡

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

穿砑

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

牚

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngaem-ɢˤ<r>a tooth

說文解字

《說文》：“牙，牡齒也。象上下相錯之形。，古文牙。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.139-140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)

垢 gòu dirt

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 后 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
后
后 Sound component
hòu queen, after

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkoːʔ
Unicodegǒu

說文解字

濁也。从土后聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)