Original meaning: to store
Depicts two hands (廾) hiding rice (米) in a corner or a container. Based on the original meaning "to store". The meaning later shifted to "obscure", "profound", and "mysterious".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | 'awH | ʔˤuk-s | southwest corner of a house |
| 'juwk | ʔ(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
- Character origin
- 鄔可晶《釋「奧」》Wiktionary (JA)
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Simplified
Original meaning: to store
Simplified form of 奧. Depicts two hands (廾) hiding rice (米) in a corner or a container. Based on the original meaning "to store". The meaning later shifted to "obscure", "profound", and "mysterious".
Components
Component uses
說文解字
宛也。室之西南隅。从宀𢍏聲。
Sources
- Character origin
- 鄔可晶《釋「奧」》Wiktionary (JA)
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)