疑难解答 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

yí doubt

Pictograph of a person holding onto a staff, looking to the side with his mouth open, doubtful of which direction to go. The 龰 (foot) component was added later to indicate movement, and the 牛 component was added to hint at the sound.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a person standing up, holding onto a staff, with their mouth open and looking to the side.

牛 Sound component

niú cow

Change in sound

疑 and 牛 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
疑 *[ŋ](r)ə (< uvular)
牛 *[ŋ]ʷə (< uvular?)

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 牛 than it was in ancient scripts.

龰 Meaning component

zhǐ (foot)

龰 is a component form of 止.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

凝嶷礙癡擬

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ngi	[ŋ](r)ə (< uvular)	doubt

說文解字

《說文》：“疑，惑也。从子、止、匕，矢聲。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1281
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

nán, nan, nàn difficult Simplified

Original meaning: type of bird

Simplified form of 難. Phonosemantic compound. 隹 represents the meaning and 𦰩 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "type of bird". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

又 Simplified component

yòu again

Shorthand for the 𦰩 component in the traditional character 難.

隹 Meaning component

zhuī, cuī, wéi bird

Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

滩摊瘫傩

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

jiě divide

Depicts separating (解) the horns (角) from a cow (牛) using a knife (刀).

Components

角 Iconic component

jiǎo, jué horn

刀 Iconic component

dāo knife

牛 Iconic component

niú cow

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

懈蟹邂獬廨澥

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	keaX	kˤreʔ	cut up; unloose
	heaX	N-kˤreʔ	understand
	heaX	N-kˤreʔ	#NAME?

說文解字

《說文》：“解，判也。从刀判牛角。一曰解廌，獸也。”

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)

dá, dā answer

Original meaning: small bean

Phonosemantic compound. ⺮ represents the meaning and 合 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "small bean". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

⺮ Meaning component

zhú bamboo

⺮ is a component form of 竹.

Change in meaning

⺮ hints at the original meaning of 答, "small bean", which is no longer the most common meaning of 答 in modern Mandarin.

合 Sound component

hé to join

Change in sound

答 and 合 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
答 top
合 kop

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

劄

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	top	[t]ˤ[u]p	answer

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.68
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart

nán, nan, nàn difficult Traditional

Original meaning: type of bird

Phonosemantic compound. 隹 represents the meaning and 𦰩 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "type of bird". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

𦰩 Sound component

jiān to sigh

Change in sound

難 and 𦰩 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

隹 Meaning component

zhuī, cuī, wéi bird

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

攤儺癱灘

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nan	nˤar	difficult
	nanH	nˤar-s	difficulty

說文解字

《說文》：“，鳥也。从鳥，堇聲。難，或从隹。”

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)

疑 yí doubt

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

难 nán, nan, nàn difficult Simplified

Components

Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

Sources

解 jiě divide

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

答 dá, dā answer

Components

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

難 nán, nan, nàn difficult Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

yí doubt

nán, nan, nàn difficult Simplified

jiě divide

dá, dā answer

nán, nan, nàn difficult Traditional