采买
cǎi​mǎi

buyer

采 cǎi gather, pick Simplified

Pictograph of a hand (爫) picking fruit from a tree (木).

Components

爫
爫 Iconic component
zhǎo hand, claw

爫 is a component form of 爪.

木
木 Iconic component
mù tree

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 7 verified)

彩菜踩睬綵埰採

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttshojXs.r̥ˤəʔ gather, pluck
tshojXs.r̥ˤəʔ colorful

說文解字

《說文》：“采，捋取也。从木，从爪。”

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)

买 mǎi buy Simplified

Pictograph of money (貝) coming out of a netted bag (网). The simplified character 买 was adapted from the cursive form of the traditional character 買.

Components

网
网 IconicSimplified component
wǎng net
头
头 Simplified component
tóu, tou head

Shorthand for the 貝 component in the traditional character 買. Shells were used as currency in ancient China.

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

卖荬

Meaning (1)

卖

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

採 gather Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 采 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

采
采 Sound component
cǎi gather, pick

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttshojXs.r̥ˤəʔ gather, pluck

Sources

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

買 mǎi buy Traditional

Pictograph of money (貝) coming out of a netted bag (网).

Components

网
网 Iconic component
wǎng net
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 网 than it was in ancient scripts.
貝
貝 Iconic component
bèi sea shell

Shells were used as currency in ancient China.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

賣蕒

Meaning (1)

賣

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmeaXmˤrajʔ buy

說文解字

《說文》：“買，市也。从网、貝。《孟子》曰：‘登壟斷而网市利。’”

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)