看守
kān​shǒu

guard

看 kàn, kān look

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

Components

倝
倝 SoundRemnant component
gàn sunrise
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 倝 than it was in ancient scripts.
目
目 Meaning component
mù eye

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhankʰˤa[r] to watch, guard
khanH[kʰ]ˤa[r]-s gaze at

說文解字

《說文》：“看，睎也。从手下目。，看或从倝。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.268-269
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

守 shǒu defend

Depicts a hand (寸) guarding a building (宀).

Components

宀
宀 Iconic component
mián roof
寸
寸 Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

狩

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsyuwXs-tuʔ keep, guard
syuwHs.tuʔ-s territory in somebody's guard, fief

說文解字

《說文》：“守，守官也。从宀，从寸。寺府之事者。从寸，寸，法度也。”

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)