皇太后
huáng​tài​hòu

empress dowager

皇 huáng royal

Depicts a decorative crown above 王 (king).

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a decorative crown.

王
王 SoundMeaning component
wáng king

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 11 verified)

煌惶凰蝗徨隍湟遑篁鳇艎

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwang[ɢ]ʷˤaŋ yellow and white spotted
hwang[ɢ]ʷˤaŋ sovereign

說文解字

《說文》：“皇，大也。从自，自，始也，始皇者，三皇大君也。自，讀若鼻，今俗以始生子為鼻子。”

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)

太 tài, tai very

Addition of a dot to 大 (dà; big) to mean "very" or "extremely".

Components

大
大 SoundMeaning component
dà, dài big
Change in sound
丶
丶 Distinguishing component
zhǔ dot

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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

Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

态汰钛肽呔酞鈦

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartthajHl̥ˤa[t]-s great

說文解字

《說文》：“泰，滑也。从廾，从水，大聲。夳，古文泰。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.800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)

后 hòu queen, after

Original meaning: heir to the throne

Depicts a queen mother (母) giving birth to her heir (𠫓). Based on the original meaning "heir to the throne". The meaning later expanded to "ruler", "successor", and "after".

Components

母
母 Iconic component
mǔ mother
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 母 than it was in ancient scripts.
𠫓
𠫓 Iconic component
tū, yù newborn

Depicts a child being born.

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

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 Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

垢逅诟骺詬

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

骺

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthuwXɢˤ(r)oʔ sovereign; queen

說文解字

《說文》：“后，繼體君也。象人之形。施令以告四方，故厂之，从一、口。發號者，君后也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.708-709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)