Original meaning: pen; fence
Depicts an animal, such as a cow (牛), trapped around an animal's fence (宀).
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | ruː | |
| Unicode | lɑu |
說文解字
《說文》：“牢，閑，養牛馬圈也。从牛，冬省，取其四周帀也。”
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)
Original meaning: conflict
Phonosemantic compound. 非 represents the meaning and 告 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "conflict". The meaning later shifted to "lean against".
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Old Chinese | |
|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | kʰuːɡs |
說文解字
《說文》：“靠，相違也。从非，告聲。”
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)