yóu​wù

rarity

yóu especially

Original meaning: wart

Pictograph of a hand with a wart on it. The original meaning "wart" is now written as . The original meaning later expanded to "strange, bizarre" and "outstanding, special".

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (5 of 7 verified)

Unknown (0 of 2 verified)

Simplified (1)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthjuw[ɢ]ʷə fault; even more

說文解字

《說文》:“尤,異也。从乙,又聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.960
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

wù, wu thing

Original meaning: varicolored cow

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "variety", depicting the variety of colors on a cow. Later the meaning shifted to "things".

Components

Meaning component
niú cow
Sound component
wù, mò must not

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmjutC.mut thing

說文解字

《說文》:“物,萬物也。牛為大物,天地之數,起於牽牛,故从牛,勿聲。”

Sources

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