Pictograph of an old person with long hair bent over and leaning on a cane.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | lawX | C.rˤuʔ | old |
說文解字
《說文》：“老，考也。七十曰老。从人、毛、匕。言須髮變白也。”
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)
Simplified
Traditional
Original meaning: bind together
Phonosemantic compound. 糹 represents the meaning and 悤 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bind together", since thread (糹) is used to put things together.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsuwng | [ts]ˤoŋ | bundle of threads |
| tsuwngX | [ts]ˤoŋ | bind together |
說文解字
《說文》：“總，聚束也。从糸，悤聲。”
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)