看呆 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

kàndāi

stare blankly

kàn, kān look

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 倝 represents the sound.

gàn sunrise

Change in form

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

目 Meaning component

mù eye

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	khan	kʰˤa[r]	to watch, guard
	khanH	[kʰ]ˤa[r]-s	gaze at

《說文》：“看，睎也。从手下目。，看或从倝。”

Depicts the mouth (口) being stuck and not moving, like wood (木), representing someone stupid or expressionless.

口 Iconic component

kǒu, kou mouth

木 Iconic component

mù tree

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	tɯː
	ŋɯː