刷牙
shuā​yá HSK4

brush teeth

刷 shuā brush

Depicts a person squatting (尸) and holding a utensil (刂 ) attached to a cloth (巾) to scrub or clean something.

Components

尸
尸 Iconic component
shī sitting person

Depicts a person squatting.

巾
巾 Iconic component
jīn cloth
刂
刂 Iconic component
dāo knife

Used here to depict a utensil held in the hand. The variant character 㕞 used the 又 (hand) component instad.


Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

唰涮

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsrjwet[s]r[o]t (dialect: retains MC srj-)brush (v.)
srwaet[s]r[o]t brush (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“刷，刮也。从刀，省聲。《禮》：‘布刷巾。’”

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)

牙 yá tooth

Depicts top and bottom teeth touching each other.

Character Evolution

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 Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (7 of 18 verified)

与呀雅耶邪讶鸦芽伢蚜與迓砑岈訝鴉枒玡

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

穿砑

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

牚

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngaem-ɢˤ<r>a tooth

說文解字

《說文》：“牙，牡齒也。象上下相錯之形。，古文牙。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.139-140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)