卯
mǎo

4th terrestrial branch

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approved by Peter Olson · Aug 28, 2021, 09:29 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Aug 28, 2021, 09:29 PM

刂 component

Changed fields: components

Original meaning: butcher's knife

Depicts two knives side-by-side. Based on the original meaning "butcher's knife". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

刂
刂
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 刂 than it was in ancient scripts.
刀
刀 Iconic component
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 刀 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

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 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 Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmaewXmˤruʔ 4th earthly branch

說文解字

《說文》：“卯，冒也。二月萬物冒地而出，象開門之形。故二月為天門。，古文卯。”

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)