rǔ Huá

insult China

humiliate

Original meaning: to use a farming tool for weeding

Depicts a hand () using a farming tool () to remove dirty weeds. Based on the original meaning "to use a farming tool for weeding", now written as . The meaning of this character has shifted over time and now means "disgrace" and "humiliate".

Components

Iconic component
chén early morning

Depicts a farming tool.

Iconic component
cùn, cun (hand), inch

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnyowknok disgrace

說文解字

《說文》:“辱,耻也。从寸在辰下。失耕時,於封畺上戮之也。辰者,農之時也。故房星為辰,田候也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.1285
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

huá magnificent Simplified

Simplified form of . is used here to represent the sound. The bottom component is a remnant from the traditional character .

Components

Sound component
huà change
huá magnificent

Remnant from the bottom of the traditional character .

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.554-555
Readings & variants
Unicode

huá magnificent Traditional

Original meaning: flower

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and 𠌶 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "flower", now written as . The meaning later shifted to "blossoming", "flourishing" and "magnificent".

Components

Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

is a component form of .

𠌶
𠌶 SoundMeaning component
huā flower

Pictograph of a fully bloomed flower.

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

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

Simplified (1)

Remnant (1)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartxwaeqʷʰˤra flower (n.)
hwaeN-qʷʰˤra flower (v.); flowery (adj.)
hwaeH[ɢ]ʷˤra-s [name of a mountain]

說文解字

榮也。从艸从𠌶。凡華之屬皆从華。

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.554-555
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica