tǔ​kē​lā

clod

earth

Depicts a lump of dirt on the ground.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartthuXtʰˤaʔ earth

說文解字

《說文》:“土,地之吐生物者也。二象地之下、地之中物出形也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.906
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

kě, kē clod of earth

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
earth
Sound component
able to

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkʰaːlʔ
kʰaːls

說文解字

坎坷也。梁國寕陵有坷亭。从土可聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

garbage

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
earth
Sound component
stand

Sources

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