说一千，道一万 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

shuō speak Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 讠 represents the meaning and 兑 represents the sound.

Components

讠 Meaning component

yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言.

兑 Sound component

duì, ruì, duó exchange

Change in sound

说 and 兑 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
说 *l̥ot-s
兑 *lˤot-s

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

yī one

A single horizontal stroke, representing the number one.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	'jit	ʔi[t]	one

說文解字

《說文》：“一，惟初太始，道立於一，造分天地，化成萬物。弌，古文一。”

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

qiān thousand

Phonosemantic compound. 一 represents the meaning and 亻 represents the sound.

Components

一 Meaning component

yī one

亻 Sound component

rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

Change in sound

千 and 亻 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
千 *s.n̥ˤi[ŋ]
亻 *ni[ŋ]

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 10 verified)

迁歼纤忏阡仟芊扦钎釺

Meaning (0 of 4 verified)

歼芊钎釺

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tshen	s.n̥ˤi[ŋ]	thousand

說文解字

《說文》：“千，十百也。从十，从人。”

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)

dào, dao path

Phonosemantic compound. 辶 represents the meaning and 首 represents the sound.

Components

辶 Meaning component

chuò walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

首 Sound component

shǒu head

Change in sound

道 and 首 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
道 *lˤuʔ-s
首 *l̥uʔ-s

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1)

導

Meaning (1)

導

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dawH	lˤuʔ-s	show the way
	dawX	[kə.l]ˤuʔ	way

說文解字

所行道也。从辵从𩠐。一達謂之道。

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

wàn ten thousand Simplified

Original meaning: to not be seen

Simplified form of 萬. Variant of 丏. Depicts a person (人) with a cover on top, conveying the original meaning "to not be seen". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

一 Iconic component

yī one

Used here to depict a cover.

人 Iconic component

rén, ren person

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

厉虿劢

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

迈趸疠

Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	mans
	mɯːɡ

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.701黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.2839-2840
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica

shuō speak Traditional

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

Components

言 Meaning component

yán speech

兌 Sound component

exchange

Change in sound

說 and 兌 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
說 *l̥ot-s
兌 *lˤot-s

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

《說文》：“說，說釋也。从言、兌。一曰談說。”

Sources

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

wàn ten thousand Traditional

Original meaning: scorpion

Originally a pictograph of a scorpion. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

邁躉癘

Sound (1)

厲

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mjonH	C.ma[n]-s	10,000

說文解字

《說文》：“萬，蟲也。从厹，象形。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.954-955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)

说 shuō speak Simplified

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

一 yī one

Character Evolution

Component uses

Iconic (9)

Meaning (2 of 7 verified)

Unknown (2)

Distinguishing (1)

Simplified (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

千 qiān thousand

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 10 verified)

Meaning (0 of 4 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

道 dào, dao path

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

万 wàn ten thousand Simplified

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

說 shuō speak Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

萬 wàn ten thousand Traditional

Character Evolution

Component uses

Meaning (0 of 3 verified)

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

shuō speak Simplified

yī one

qiān thousand

dào, dao path

wàn ten thousand Simplified

shuō speak Traditional

wàn ten thousand Traditional