dòu​fu​rǔ

fermented bean curd

dòu bean

Original meaning: vessel with a neck

Pictograph of a stemmed bowl. Based on the original meaning "vessel with a neck". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 (5 of 8 verified)

Meaning (1 of 4 verified)

Simplified (1 of 2 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartduwH[N.t]ˤo-s bean
duwH[d]ˤok-s vessel with a neck

說文解字

《說文》:“豆,古食肉器也。从口,象形。,古文豆。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

fǔ, fu rotten, decay

Phonosemantic compound. represents the sound and represents the meaning.

Components

Sound component
government
Meaning component
ròu meat

meat

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartbjuX[b](r)oʔ rotten

說文解字

《說文》:“腐,爛也。从肉,府聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

breast, milk

Depicts a mother holding () a child () breastfeeding it.

Components

Iconic component
zhǎo hand, claw

is a component form of . Depicts a hand.

Iconic component
zi, zǐ child
Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a mother breastfeeding.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyuXnoʔ milk; nipple

說文解字

《說文》:“乳,人及鳥生子曰乳,獸曰產。从孚,从乙。乙者,玄鳥也。《明堂》、《月令》:‘玄鳥至之日,祠于高禖以請子。’故乳从乙。請子必以乙至之日者,乙春分來,秋分去,開生之候鳥,帝少昊司分之官也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica