猫头鹰
māo​tóu​yīng

owl

猫 māo cat Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 苗 represents the sound. Simplified form of 貓.

Components

犭
犭 Meaning component
quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

苗
苗 Sound component
miáo sprouts

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmrew

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

头 tóu, tou head Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 頁 represents the meaning and 豆 represents the sound. The simplified character 头 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 頭.

Components

豆
豆 SoundSimplified component
dòu bean
頁
頁 IconicSimplified component
yè (head), page

Depicts a head on top of a person.

Component uses

Simplified (2)

实买

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

鹰 yīng eagle Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 鸟 represents the meaning and 䧹 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鷹.

Components

鸟
鸟 Meaning component
niǎo bird
䧹
䧹 SoundMeaning component
yīng eagle

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

貓 māo cat Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 豸 represents the meaning and 苗 represents the sound.

Components

豸
豸 Meaning component
zhì (dhole), beast
苗
苗 Sound component
miáo sprouts

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmaewC.mˤraw cat

說文解字

《說文新附》：“貓，貍屬。从豸，苗聲。”

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)

頭 tóu, tou head Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 頁 represents the meaning and 豆 represents the sound.

Components

頁
頁 Iconic component
yè (head), page

Depicts a head on top of a person.

豆
豆 Sound component
dòu bean

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartduw[m-t]ˤo head

說文解字

《說文》：“頭，首也。从頁，豆聲。”

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)

鷹 yīng eagle Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 鳥 represents the meaning and 䧹 represents the sound.

Components

鳥
鳥 Meaning component
niǎo bird
䧹
䧹 SoundMeaning component
yīng eagle

䧹 also serves as a meaning component.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'ing[q](r)əŋ eagle, falcon

說文解字

《說文》：“，鳥也。从隹，瘖省聲。或从人，人亦聲。，籀文从鳥。”

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)