approvedby inralback19 · Mar 25, 2026, 03:54 PM· Reviewed by Prismcool on Mar 26, 2026, 03:36 PM
tattoo the face for a crime committed
Changed fields: originalMeaning
Original meaning: tattoo the face for a crime committed
Phonosemantic compound. 土 represents the meaning and 黑 represents the sound. Originally written as 黑, which depicts a person whose face has been tattooed.
墨 and 黑 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar
in Old Chinese. 墨*C.mˤək 黑*m̥ˤək (dialect *m̥ˤ- > xˤ-)
