勞
láo

labor

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approved by Peter Olson · Nov 17, 2021, 03:25 AM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Nov 17, 2021, 03:25 AM

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Changed fields: hint, isVerified, components, customSources, strokeDataSimp, fragmentsSimp, historicalImages

Depicts the hard work of sewing clothes (衣) with only firelight(炏). Later the 力 (strength, power) component was added.

Components

炏
炏 Iconic component
衣
衣 IconicRemnant component
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 衣 than it was in ancient scripts.
力
力 Meaning component

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Spring and Autumn ~600 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 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 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-Sagartlaw[r]ˤaw toil
lawH[r]ˤaw-s to reward for toil

說文解字

《說文》:“勞,劇也。从力,熒省。熒火燒冂,用力者勞。,古文勞从悉。”

Sources

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