魔怪 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

móguài

monster

mó demon

Phonosemantic compound. 鬼 represents the meaning and 麻 represents the sound.

Components

麻 Sound component

má, ma hemp

鬼 Meaning component

guǐ ghost

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	maːl

說文解字

《說文新附》：“魔，鬼也。从鬼，麻聲。”

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)

guài strange

Phonosemantic compound. 忄 represents the meaning and 圣 represents the sound.

Components

忄 Meaning component

xin, xīn heart

忄 is a component form of 心.

圣 Sound component

shèng sage, holy

Change in sound

怪 and 圣 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
怪 *kruːds
圣 *kʰuːd

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kweajH	[k]ʷˤrə-s	extraordinary

說文解字

《說文》：“怪，異也。从心，圣聲。”

Sources

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

魔 mó demon

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

怪 guài strange

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

mó demon

guài strange