𢦏
zāi

to cut

Phonosemantic compound. represents the sound and represents the meaning.

Components

Sound component
cái, cai talent
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
Meaning component
spear

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsoj[ts]ˤəhurt, damage (v.)
Zhengzhangʔslɯː

說文解字

《說文》:“,傷也。从戈,才聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica