牛仔布
niú​zǎi​bù

denim

牛 niú cow

Pictograph of the head of a cow.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (5 of 28 verified)

物特件牧牲牺犁犀犊犟犄犒牝牦牯犍荦牾犋犏牿犢犪牴犂犎牸犧

Iconic (7)

解半牵牢牟牡牽

Sound (1)

疑

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngjuw[ŋ]ʷə (< uvular?)ox

說文解字

《說文》：“牛，大牲也，牛件也。件，事理也。象角頭三，封尾之形。”

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)

仔 zǐ small thing

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 子 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

子
子 SoundMeaning component
zi, zǐ child

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔslɯ
ʔslɯʔ

說文解字

《說文》：“仔，克也。从人，子聲。”

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)

布 bù cotton cloth

Phonosemantic compound. 巾 represents the meaning and 父 represents the sound.

Components

父
父 Sound component
fù father
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 父 than it was in ancient scripts.
巾
巾 Meaning component
jīn cloth

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

怖钸鈽佈

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpuHpˤa-s cloth
puHpˤa-s cloth

說文解字

《說文》：“布，枲織也。从巾，父聲。”

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)