měi​shā​tóng

methadone

měi beautiful

Pictograph of a person with ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.

Components

Iconic component
yáng sheep

Depicts ornamental headwear resembling sheep horns.

Iconic component
dà, dài big

Used here as a pictograph of a person.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmijX[m]rəjʔ beautiful

說文解字

《說文》:“美,甘也。从羊,从大。”

Sources

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

shā sand

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

is a component form of .

SoundIconic component
shǎo, shao, shào few

depicts four small grains of sand.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 8 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsraesˤraj sand

說文解字

《說文》:“沙,水石也。从水,从少,水少沙見。楚東有沙水。譚長說,沙,或从尐。”

Sources

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

tóng, dòng, chóng ketones

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
yǒu wine
Sound component
tóng, tong, tòng together

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangdoːŋ
doːŋʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang