crowded, repeated

Original meaning: mouth like a torrent, speaking a lot

Depicts speech flowing out of the mouth () like water (). Based on the original meaning "mouth like a torrent, speaking a lot". The meaning later expanded to "repeated", "crowded", "join", and "unite".

Components

Iconic component
shuǐ water
Iconic component
yuē say

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdopm-rˤəp join, unite

說文解字

《說文》:“沓,語多沓沓也。从水,从曰。遼東有沓縣。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.416-417
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica