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)
Original meaning: offer a delicacy
Depicts a hand (丑) holding sheep meat (羊). Based on the original meaning "offer a delicacy", now written as 饈. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | sjuw | s-nu | shame |
說文解字
《說文》：“羞，進獻也。从羊，羊所進也；从丑，丑亦聲。”
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)
Original meaning: city
Depicts defending city walls (丁) with an axe (戌). 丁 also represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "city", now written as 城. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Depicts city walls.
Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 丁 than it was in ancient scripts.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | dzyeng | [d]eŋ | to become (v.i.) |
| dzyeng | m-[d]eŋ | to complete (tr. v) |
說文解字
《說文》：“成，就也。从戊，丁聲。，古文成从午。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.963-964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)
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nuX | C.nˤaʔ | angry |
| nuH | C.nˤaʔ-s | anger, angry; vigorous | |
| Zhengzhang | naːʔ | ||
| naːs | |||
| Unicode | nǒ | ||
| nò |
說文解字
恚也。从心奴聲。
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)