窥探
kuī​tàn

peer

窥 kuī peep Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 穴 represents the meaning and 规 represents the sound. Simplified form of 窺.

Components

穴
穴 Meaning component
xué, jué cave
规
规 Sound component
guī rules

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

探 tàn, tan explore, find

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 罙 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

罙
罙 Sound component
shēn deep
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartthoml̥ˤ[ə]m put the hand into and test

說文解字

《說文》：“，遠取之也。从手，聲。”

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)

窺 peep Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 穴 represents the meaning and 規 represents the sound.

Components

穴
穴 Meaning component
xué, jué cave
規
規 Sound component
guī rules

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhjwiekʷʰepry, spy (v.)
Zhengzhangkʰʷel
Unicodekiuɛ

說文解字

小視也。从穴規聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)