的的喀喀湖
Dì​dì​kā​kā Hú

Lake Titicaca

的 de, dì, dí [possessive]

Original meaning: bright

Phonosemantic compound. 白 represents the meaning and 勺 represents the sound. The character is based on the original meaning "bright".

Components

白
白 Meaning component
bái, bai white
Change in meaning
白 hints at the original meaning of 的, "bright", which is no longer the most common meaning of 的 in modern Mandarin.
勺
勺 Sound component
sháo, shuò, zhuó spoon
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttek[t-l]ˤewk bright; mark in a target

說文解字

《說文》：“旳，明也。从日，勺聲。《易》曰：‘為的顙。’”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

喀 kā, kè, ke vomit

Phonosemantic compound. 口 represents the meaning and 客 represents the sound.

Components

口
口 Meaning component
kǒu, kou mouth
客
客 Sound component
kè guest

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkʰraːɡ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

湖 hú a lake

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 胡 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

胡
胡 Sound component
hú beard

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[g]ˤa lake

說文解字

《說文》：“湖，大陂也。从水，胡聲。揚州浸有五湖。浸，川澤所仰以灌溉也。”

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)