采煤
cǎi​méi

coal mining

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)

煤 méi coal

Phonosemantic compound. 火 represents the meaning and 某 represents the sound.

Components

火
火 Meaning component
huǒ fire
某
某 Sound component
mǒu certain thing or person

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmwojmˤəsoot; coal
Zhengzhangmɯː

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

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