吴哥窟
Wú​gē​kū

Angkor Wat

吴 wú, yú, tūn one of warring states Simplified

Simplified form of 吳. Pictograph of a person (天) standing up, yelling with an open mouth (口).

Components

口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth
天
天 Iconic component
tiān, tian sky

Depicts a person standing up.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

误娱蜈俣

Historical Pronunciations

Middle Chinese
Unicodengo

說文解字

《說文》：“昦，春為昦天，元气昦昦。从日、夰，夰亦聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

哥 gē, ge elder brother

Original meaning: to sing

Duplicate of 可, which has a similar sound. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

可
可 Sound component
kě able to
可
可 Sound component
kě able to

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3)

歌謌𬤐

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangkaːl
Unicodegɑ

說文解字

《說文》：“哥，聲也。从二可。古文以為謌字。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

窟 kū hole

Phonosemantic compound. 穴 represents the meaning and 屈 represents the sound.

Components

穴
穴 Meaning component
xué, jué cave
屈
屈 Sound component
qū, qu bend

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhwot[kʰ]ˤutcave, hole
Zhengzhangkʰluːd
Unicodekuət

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

吳 one of warring states Traditional

Original meaning: to shout

Pictograph of a person with their head tilted (夨) yelling with an open mouth (口).

Components

口
口 Iconic component
kǒu, kou mouth

Depicts a mouth.

夨
夨 Iconic component
zè to tilt the head

Depicts a person with their head tilted.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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 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 (2 of 3 verified)

虞誤娛

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnguŋʷˤa shout; name of a state

說文解字

《說文》：“吳，姓也，亦郡也。一曰吳，大言也。从夨、口。，古文如此。”

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)