龟壳花
guī​ké​huā

pit viper

龟 guī turtle or tortoise Simplified

Simplified form of 龜. Pictograph of a tortoise.

Sources

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

壳 ké, qiào casing Simplified

Simplified form of 殼. Phonosemantic compound. 几 represents the meaning and 㱿 represents the sound.

Components

㱿
㱿 SoundRemnant component
què, hù, qiǎng to strike from above
几
几 Meaning component
jǐ, jī small table

A table is considered to be a hard object, much like a casing.

Sources

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

花 huā, hua flower

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 化 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

化
化 Sound component
huà change

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxwaeqʷʰˤra flower (n.)

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart

龜 guī turtle or tortoise Traditional

Pictograph of a tortoise.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

鬮

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkjuw[k]ʷə tortoise
kwij[k]ʷrə tortoise

說文解字

《說文》：“龜，舊也，外骨內肉者也。从它，龜頭與它頭同，天地之性，廣肩無雄。龜鼈之類，以它為雄。象足、甲、尾之形。，古文龜。”

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)

殼 ké, qiào casing Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 几 represents the meaning and 㱿 represents the sound.

Components

几
几 Meaning component
jǐ, jī small table

A table is considered to be a hard object, much like a casing.

㱿
㱿 Sound component
què, hù, qiǎng to strike from above

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhaewk[kʰ]ˤrok hollow shell, hollow

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart