魔爪
mó​zhǎoMó​zhǎo

claws

魔 mó demon

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

Components

麻
麻 Sound component
má, ma hemp
鬼
鬼 Meaning component
guǐ ghost

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmaːl

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)

爪 zhǎo, zhuǎ hand, claw

Pictograph of a hand or claw pointing downwards.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Iconic (2)

色印

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

抓笊

Meaning (2)

抓爬

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsraewX[ts]ˤ<r>uʔ claw

說文解字

《說文》：“爪，也。覆手曰爪，象形。”

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)