闹着玩儿 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

nào, nao noisy, quarrel Simplified

Simplified form of 鬧. Markets (市) and fights (鬥) are noisy.

Components

门 Simplified component

mén, men door

Shorthand for the 鬥 component in the traditional character 鬧.

市 Meaning component

shì market

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

zhe, zháo, zhuó [progress particle] Simplified

Original meaning: chopsticks

Simplified form of 著. 艹 represents the meaning and 者 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "chopsticks", now written as 箸. The modern meanings are phonetic loans.

Components

艹 Meaning Simplified component

cao, cǎo grass

Alludes to bamboo chopsticks. 艹 and ⺮ (bamboo) were often used interchangeably with each other because of their visual and semantic similarity.

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 艹 than it was in ancient scripts.

者 Sound component

zhě one who...

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese
Unicode	djiɑk
	djiɑk

Sources

Character origin: Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters
Readings & variants: Unicode

wán play

Phonosemantic compound. 𤣩 represents the meaning and 元 represents the sound.

Components

𤣩 Meaning component

yù jade

𤣩 is a component form of 玉.

元 Sound component

yuán first

Character Evolution

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

Clerical form — Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	ngwanH	[ŋ]ˤo[n]-s	plaything

說文解字

《說文》：“玩，弄也。从玉，元聲。貦，玩或从貝。”

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)

r, ér child Simplified

Simplified form of 兒. Variant form of 人, a pictograph of a human.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Simplified (1)

党

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

禿

說文解字

《說文》：“儿，仁人也。古文奇字人也。象形。孔子曰：在人下，故詰屈。”

Sources

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

nào, nao noisy; quarrel Traditional

Markets (市) and fights (鬥) are noisy.

Components

鬥 Meaning component

fight

市 Meaning component

shì market

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	rnaːws

說文解字

《說文新附》：“鬧，不静也。从市、鬥。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

zhe, zháo, zhù [progress particle] Traditional

Original meaning: chopsticks

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 者 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "chopsticks", now written as 箸. The modern meanings are phonetic loans.

Components

艹 Meaning component

cao, cǎo grass

Alludes to bamboo chopsticks. 艹 and ⺮ (bamboo) were often used interchangeably with each other because of their visual and semantic similarity.

Change in meaning

艹 hints at the original meaning of 著, "chopsticks", which is no longer the most common meaning of 著 in modern Mandarin.

者 Sound component

zhě one who...

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

躇

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	trjoH	t<r>ak-s	place (n.); visible
	drjak	m-t<r>ak	put on clothes; be attached
	trjak	t<r>ak	to place

Sources

Character origin: Outlier Dictionary of Chinese Characters
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica

r, ér son Traditional

Pictograph of a child (人) with an opening in the top of its head (囟). Represents the soft spot (fontanel) at the top of young infant heads. The 囟 component is written like 臼.