ào​dīng

Odin

aò, ào, yù mysterious Simplified

Original meaning: to store

Simplified form of . Depicts two hands () hiding rice () in a corner or a container. Based on the original meaning "to store". The meaning later shifted to "obscure", "profound", and "mysterious".

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a hidden corner or a container.

Iconic component
rice

Depicts grains of rice.

Iconic component
gǒng two hands

Depicts two hands.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.

Component uses

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

說文解字

宛也。室之西南隅。从宀𢍏聲。

Sources

dīng cubes

Original meaning: city wall

In ancient scripts was written in two different ways: (1) depicting the walls of a city, which is now written as , or (2) depicting a nail, which is now written as .

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (14 of 24 verified)

Iconic (2)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttengtˤeŋ 4th heavenly stem
tengtˤeŋ nail (n.)
treangtˤreŋ sound of beating

說文解字

《說文》:“丁,夏時萬物皆丁實。象形。丁承丙,象人心。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p. 962
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

mysterious Traditional

Original meaning: to store

Depicts two hands () hiding rice () in a corner or a container. Based on the original meaning "to store". The meaning later shifted to "obscure", "profound", and "mysterious".

Components

Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a hidden corner or a container.

Iconic component
rice

Depicts grains of rice. Modern form looks like .

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.
Iconic component
gǒng two hands

Depicts two hands.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'awHʔˤuk-s southwest corner of a house
'juwkʔ(r)uk cove in the bank of a stream

說文解字

《說文》:“奧,宛也。室之西南隅。从宀,聲。”

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica