特务 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

tè special

Original meaning: bull

Phonosemantic compound. 牛 represents the meaning and 寺 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bull". The meaning later shifted to "prominent" and "special".

Components

牛 Meaning component

niú cow

寺 Sound component

sì, shì temple

Change in sound

特 and 寺 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
特 *[d]ˤək
寺 *s-[d]əʔ-s

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dok	[d]ˤək	bull

說文解字

《說文》：“特，朴特，牛父也。从牛，寺聲。”

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)

wu, wù business Simplified

Simplified form of 務. Phonosemantic compound. 矛 represents the sound, while 攵 and 力 both represent the meaning. The traditional component 矛 was removed for simplification.

Components

矛 Deleted component

máo spear

攵 Meaning component

pū tap

攵 is a component form of 攴.

力 Meaning component

lì, li power

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

雾

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

wu, wù business Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 矛 represents the sound, while 攵 and 力 both represent the meaning.

Components

矛 Sound component

máo spear

Change in sound

務 and 矛 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
務 mjuH
矛 mjuw

攵 Meaning component

pū tap

攵 is a component form of 攴.

力 Meaning component

lì, li power

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

霧

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mjuH	m(r)o-s	exert oneself

說文解字

趣也。从力敄聲。

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)

特 tè special

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

务 wu, wù business Simplified

Components

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Sources

務 wu, wù business Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

tè special

wu, wù business Simplified

wu, wù business Traditional