太爷
tài​yé

elderly man

太 tài, tai very

Addition of a dot to 大 (dà; big) to mean "very" or "extremely".

Components

大
大 SoundMeaning component
dà, dài big
Change in sound
丶
丶 Distinguishing component
zhǔ dot

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Qin 221-206 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 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

Component uses

Sound (1 of 7 verified)

态汰钛肽呔酞鈦

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartthajHl̥ˤa[t]-s great

說文解字

《說文》：“泰，滑也。从廾，从水，大聲。夳，古文泰。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.800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)

爷 ye, yé father Simplified

Simplified form of 爺. Phonosemantic compound. 父 represents the meaning and 耶 represents the sound.

Components

父
父 Meaning component
fù father
卩
卩 Simplified component
jié person kneeling

Shorthand for the 耶 component in the traditional character 爺.

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

爺 ye, yé father Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 父 represents the meaning and 耶 represents the sound.

Components

父
父 Meaning component
fù father
耶
耶 Sound component
yé, yē, ye ye (sound)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhanglaː
Unicodeia

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang