chuān​pò

pierce

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

break

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shí stone
Sound component
skin
Change in sound

Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartphaHpʰˤaj-s break (v.)

說文解字

《說文》:“破,石碎也。从石,皮聲。”

Sources

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