zhàoZhào HSK7

omen

Original meaning: escape

Originally a pictograph of two people escaping a flood. Based on the original meaning "escape", now written as . The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Iconic (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdrjewXlr[a]wʔ great number

說文解字

《說文》:“,灼龜坼也。从卜、兆,象形。兆,古文兆省。”

Sources

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