jiù mortar

Pictograph of a mortar, a hollow vessel used to crush ingredients.

Character Evolution

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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 7 verified)

Iconic (4)

Simplified (1)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartgjuwXC.[g]ʷəʔ mortar

說文解字

《說文》:“臼,舂也。古者掘地為臼,其後穿木石。象形,中米也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.581
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

nest

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
xué, jué cave
Sound component
guǒ fruit

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkʰloːl
Unicodekuɑ

說文解字

空也。穴中曰窠,樹上曰巢。从穴果聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica