胡图族
Hú​tú​zú

Hutu

胡 hú beard

Original meaning: flesh under the chin of a cow

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 古 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "flesh under the chin of a cow", which later shifted to "beard" (now written as 鬍 in traditional characters). Also used pejoratively to refer to foreigners from central Asia, who tended to have more beards than Han Chinese people. This meaning also shifted to "reckless" and "outrageous".

Components

古
古 Sound component
gǔ old
⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

Change in meaning
⺼ hints at the original meaning of 胡, "flesh under the chin of a cow", which is no longer the most common meaning of 胡 in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 13 verified)

湖糊蝴瑚葫鹕猢煳醐餬鶘鬍衚

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

煳

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[g]ˤa foreigners in the north

說文解字

《說文》：“胡，牛垂也。从肉，古聲。”

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)

图 tú map Simplified

Simplified form of 圖. Depicts a map of city boundaries (囗) and places outside the city boundaries (啚).

Components

囗
囗 Iconic component
wéi, guó surround

Depicts walls of a city.

冬
冬 Simplified component
dōng winter

Shorthand for the 啚 component in the traditional character 圖.

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

族 zú clan, tribe, race

Depicts a flag (㫃) representing a clan and an arrow (矢) representing their military power.

Components

㫃
㫃 Iconic component
yǎn flags flying
矢
矢 Iconic component
shǐ arrow

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

簇镞蔟

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdzuwk[dz]ˤok clan

說文解字

《說文》：“族，矢鋒也，束之族族也。从，从矢。”

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)

圖 tú map Traditional

Depicts a map of city boundaries (囗) and places outside the city boundaries (啚).

Components

囗
囗 Iconic component
wéi, guó surround

Depicts walls of a city.

啚
啚 Iconic component
bǐ, tú remote place

Depicts a granary outside city walls.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdu[d]ˤa consider

說文解字

《說文》：“圖，畫計難也。从口，从啚。啚，難意也。”

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)