霉素
méi​sù

mycin

霉 méi mildew Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 雨 represents the meaning and 每 represents the sound. Simplified form of 黴.

Components

雨
雨 Meaning component
yǔ rain
每
每 Sound component
měi every

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmrɯl

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

素 sù raw silk, white, plain

Depicts raw silk (糸) hanging from a rack.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a rack.

糸
糸 Iconic component
mì, sī silk

Depicts raw silk.


Character Evolution

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
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 Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

愫嗉

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

愫

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsuH[s]ˤak-s white silk

說文解字

《說文》：“素，白緻繒也。从糸、，取其澤也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.891-892
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

黴 méi mold Traditional

A small 微 black 黑 growth; 微 also provides the pronunciation

Components

微
微 Sound component
wēi small
Change in sound
黑
黑 Meaning component
hēi black

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmrɯl
mɯːls

說文解字

《說文》：“黴，中久雨青黑。从黑，微省聲。”

Sources

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