塔刹
tǎ​chà

finial

塔 tǎ tower

Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 荅 represents the sound.

Components

土
土 Meaning component
tǔ earth
荅
荅 Sound component
dā, dá, tà small bean

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtʰuːb
Unicodetɑp

說文解字

《說文新附》：“塔，西域浮屠也。从土，答聲。”

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)

刹 shā, chà temple Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 杀 represents the sound. Simplified form of 剎.

Components

刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

杀
杀 Sound component
shā kill

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰraːd

說文解字

柱也。从刀，未詳。殺省聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

剎 shā, chà temple Traditional

Components

杀
杀 Sound component
shā kill
刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

knife

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰraːd

Sources

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