dào​qǔ

misappropriate

dào rob Simplified

Simplified form of . Depicts a gluttonous person drooling () for food inside of a dish (). The meaning later shifted to "steal", "rob", and "bandit".

Components

IconicRemnant component
xián spit, saliva

Depicts saliva () coming from a person with an open mouth (). Modern form looks like .

Iconic component
mǐn, mǐng dish

Depicts a dish with food in it.

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

take

Pictograph of a hand () grabbing an ear (). In ancient China, the ears of opponents in battle were cut off and collected as tokens of victory.

Components

Iconic component
ěr ear
Iconic component
yòu hand

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 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 Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (8 of 12 verified)

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttshuwXtsʰˤoʔ take
tshjuXtsʰoʔ take
tshjuH[ts]ʰoʔ-s take (a wife)

說文解字

《說文》:“取,捕取也。从又,从耳。《周禮》:‘獲者取左耳。’《司馬法》曰:‘載獻聝。’聝者,耳也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

dào rob Traditional

Depicts a gluttonous person drooling () for food inside of a dish (). The meaning later shifted to "steal", "rob", and "bandit".

Components

Iconic component
xián spit, saliva

Depicts saliva () coming from a person with an open mouth ().

Iconic component
mǐn, mǐng dish

Depicts a dish with food in it.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdawH[d]ˤaw(k)-s steal

說文解字

《說文》:“盜,私利物也。从,欲皿者。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica