賈
jiǎgǔjià

merchant, trade

Phonosemantic compound. 貝 represents the meaning and 襾 represents the sound.

Components

襾
襾 Sound component
yà cover
貝
貝 Meaning component
bèi sea shell

In ancient China, shells were used as currency.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkuXC.qˤaʔ merchant; do business
kaeHC.qˤ<r>aʔ-s (or *mə.qˤ<r>aʔ-s?)price

說文解字

《說文》:“賈,賈市也。从貝,襾聲。一曰坐賣售也。”

Sources

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

贾 jiǎ, gǔ, jià merchant, trade Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 贝 represents the meaning and 襾 represents the sound. Simplified form of 賈.

Components

襾
襾 Sound component
yà cover
贝
贝 Meaning component
bèi sea shell

In ancient China, shells were used as currency.

Sources

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