鸡飞狗跳 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

jīfēigǒutiào

chaos

jī chickens Simplified

Simplified from a variant form of the traditional character 雞.

Components

又 Simplified component

yòu again

Shorthand form of the 奚 component in the traditional character 雞.

鸟 Meaning component

niǎo bird

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

fēi fly Simplified

Simplified form of 飛. Pictograph of a flying bird.

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

gǒu dog

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 句 represents the sound.

Components

犭 Meaning component

quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

句 Sound component

jù sentence

Change in sound

狗 and 句 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.
狗 kuwX
句 kuw

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

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

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kuwX	Cə.kˤroʔ	dog

說文解字

《說文》：“狗，孔子曰：‘狗，叩也，叩气吠以守。’从犬，句聲。”

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)

tiào jump

Phonosemantic compound. 足 represents the meaning and 兆 represents the sound.

Components

足 Meaning component

zú foot

兆 Sound component

zhào omen

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dew	lˤew	jump

說文解字

《說文》：“跳，蹶也。从足，兆聲。一曰躍也。”

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)

jī chicken Traditional

Originally was a pictograph of a chicken. Later changed to a phonosemantic compound of 奚 and 隹 (bird).

Components

奚 Sound component

xī where? what? how? why?

隹 Meaning component

zhuī, cuī, wéi bird

Character Evolution

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Oracle form — Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

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

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

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kej	kˤe	fowl, chicken

說文解字

《說文》：“雞，知時畜也。从隹，奚聲。鷄，籀文雞从鳥。”

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)

fēi fly Traditional

Pictograph of a flying bird.

Character Evolution

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

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

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	pj+j	Cə.pə[r] (dialect: -r > -j)	fly (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“飛，鳥翥也。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)