艰苦朴素 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

jiān difficult Simplified

Simplified form of 艱. Originally pictograph of person (卩 or 女) guarding a drum (壴) to report difficulties. Later reanalyzed as a compound of 𦰩 and 艮, which both represent the sound.

Components

又 Simplified component

yòu again

Shorthand for the 𦰩 component in the traditional character 艱.

艮 Sound component

gěn, gèn, hén blunt

Originally written as 壴 but later reanalyzed as 艮 to represent the sound.

Sources

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

kǔ bitter

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 古 represents the sound.

Components

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

古 Sound component

gǔ old

Character Evolution

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

楛

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

楛

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	khuX	kʰˤaʔ	bitter

說文解字

大苦，苓也。从艸古聲。

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)

pǔ surname Piao Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 卜 represents the sound. Simplified form of 樸.

Components

木 Meaning component

mù tree

卜 Sound component

bo fortune telling

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	pʰroːɡ

說文解字

木皮也。从木卜聲。

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

sù raw silk, white, plain

Depicts raw silk (糸) hanging from a rack.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a rack.

糸 Iconic component

mì, sī silk

Depicts raw silk.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

愫嗉

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

愫

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	suH	[s]ˤak-s	white silk

說文解字

《說文》：“素，白緻繒也。从糸、，取其澤也。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.891-892
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

jiān difficult Traditional

Originally pictograph of person (卩 or 女) guarding a drum (壴) to report difficulties. Later reanalyzed as a compound of 𦰩 and 艮, which both represent the sound.