该
gāi HSK2

should

Simplified form of 該. Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 亥 represents the sound.

Components

言
言 Meaning component
yán speech
亥
亥 Sound component
hài, jiē 12th terrestrial branch

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

該 gāi should Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 言 represents the meaning and 亥 represents the sound.

Components

言
言 Meaning component
yán speech
亥
亥 Sound component
hài, jiē 12th terrestrial branch

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 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-Sagartkoj[k]ˤə all, complete

說文解字

《說文》：“該，軍中約也。从言，亥聲。讀若‘心中滿該’。”

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)