刘
Liúliú

surname

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approved by Peter Olson · Dec 20, 2021, 08:25 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Dec 20, 2021, 08:25 PM

component -> side

Changed fields: components

Original meaning: type of battle axe

Simplified form of 劉. Phonosemantic compound. 卯 represents the sound and 金 and 刂 represent the meaning. Based on the original meaning "battle-axe". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

文
文 Simplified component

Shorthand for the left side of the traditional character 劉.

刂
刂 Meaning component

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Change in meaning
刂 hints at the original meaning of 刘, "type of battle axe", which is no longer the most common meaning of 刘 in modern Mandarin.

Sources

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