乎
hū HSK4

interrogative or exclamatory final particle

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approved by Peter Olson · Oct 9, 2021, 04:00 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Oct 9, 2021, 04:00 PM

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Changed fields: hint, originalMeaning, isVerified, components, customSources

Original meaning: exhale, shout

Depicts wind rustling through a tree branch (丂). Based on the original meaning "exhale, shout", now written as 呼. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component

Depicts airflow from wind.

丂
丂 Iconic component

Depicts a tree branch.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthuɢˤa (Q particle)
huɢˤa in, at

說文解字

《說文》：“乎，語之餘也。从，象聲上越揚之形也。”

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)