láo​sāo

discontent

láo prison

Original meaning: pen; fence

Depicts an animal, such as a cow (), trapped around an animal's fence ().

Components

Iconic component
mián roof

Originally a pictograph of an animal pen. Later reanalyzed as (roof).

Iconic component
niú cow

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangruː
Unicodelɑu

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

sāo, sǎo, xiāo harass Simplified

A flea  biting a horse  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
horse
SoundMeaning component
zǎo, zhǎo flea

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

harass Traditional

A flea  biting a horse  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
horse
SoundMeaning component
zǎo, zhǎo flea

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsaw[s]ˤudisturb
Zhengzhangsuː
Unicodesɑu

說文解字

擾也。一曰摩馬。从馬蚤聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica