zhēng​gāo

steamed cake

zhēng steam

Steam  provides the meaning and sound

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass
Meaning component
zhēng rise

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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-Sagarttsyingtəŋtwigs as firewood
Zhengzhangkljɯŋ
Unicodejiəng
jiɛng

說文解字

折麻中榦也。从艸烝聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

gāo cakes

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
rice
Sound component
gāo lamb

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkluː

Sources

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