脏污
zāng​wū

filth

脏 zàng, zāng internal organs, dirty Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 庄 represents the sound. Simplified form of 髒 (dirty) and 臟 (internal organ).

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

庄
庄 Sound component
zhuāng village, farmstead

Sources

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

污 wū filthy

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 亏 (于) represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

water

于
于 Sound component
yú at

亏 and 于 both come from the same ancient character.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'waeqʷˤra impure, vile

說文解字

《說文》：“汙，薉也。一曰小池為汙。一曰涂也。从水，于聲。”

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)

髒 dirty Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 骨 represents the meaning and 葬 represents the sound.

Components

骨
骨 Meaning component
gǔ, gú bone
葬
葬 Sound component
zàng bury

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔsaːŋʔ

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang