chuān​chā

alternate

穿 chuān wear

Original meaning: bore a hole

Alludes to creating a hole () with one's teeth (). Based on the original meaning "bore a hole". The meaning later expanded to "pass through" and "wear".

Components

Meaning component
xué, jué cave
Meaning component
tooth

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyhwentʰo[n] bore through

說文解字

《說文》:“穿,通也。从牙在穴中。”

Sources

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

chā insert

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

is a component form of .

SoundMeaning component
chā to separate the grain from the husk

Depicts using a pestle () to grind grain to be separated from its husk in a mortar ().

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsrheapmə-[tsʰ]<r>op insert

說文解字

《說文》:“插,刺肉也。从手,从臿。”

Sources

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