yī​gǔ​nǎo

completely

one

A single horizontal stroke, representing the number one.

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 Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Wu) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (2 of 7 verified)

Unknown (2)

Distinguishing (1)

Simplified (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jitʔi[t] one

說文解字

《說文》:“一,惟初太始,道立於一,造分天地,化成萬物。弌,古文一。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

gǔ, gu thighs

Originally written as , depicting a person with a marker indicating the location of the thigh. Later the ⺼ component was added.

Components

Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of .

SoundMeaning component
gū, yíng thigh

Modern form looks like .

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkuXkʷˤaʔ thigh

說文解字

《說文》:“股,髀也。从肉,殳聲。”

Sources

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

nǎo brain Simplified

Simplified form of . Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 𡿺 represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of .

Simplified component
xìn fontanel

Shorthand for the phonetic 𡿺 component in the traditional character .

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

nǎo brain Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 𡿺 represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of .

𡿺
𡿺 SoundMeaning component
nǎo brain

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnawXnˤ[u]ʔ brain

Sources

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