倭寇
Wō​kòu

Japanese pirates

倭 wō, wēi, wǒ dwarf

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 委 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

委
委 Sound component
wěi bent, winding

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangqoːl
qoːlʔ
qrol

說文解字

順皃。从人委聲。《詩》曰：“周道倭遟。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

寇 kòu bandits

Original meaning: to commit violence

Depicts a hand holding a weapon (攴) attacking a person (元) inside a building (宀). Based on the original meaning, "to commit violence". The meaning later shifted to "invade", "enemy" and "bandits".

Components

宀
宀 Iconic component
mián roof
元
元 Iconic component
yuán first

Depicts a person.

攴
攴 Iconic component
pū tap

Depicts a hand holding a weapon.


Character Evolution

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 Warring States ~250 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

蔻

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkhuwH[k]ʰˤ(r)o-s rob; robber

說文解字

《說文》：“寇，暴也。从攴，完。”

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)