奧
àoào

mysterious

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approved by Prismcool · May 24, 2025, 06:55 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on May 24, 2025, 06:55 PM

Change etymology

Changed fields: hint, originalMeaning, components, customSources, strokeDataSimp, fragmentsSimp, historicalImages

Original meaning: to store

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

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component

Depicts a container.

米
米 Iconic component

Depicts grains of rice. Modern form looks like 釆.

𠬜
𠬜 Iconic component

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

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

Character origin
https://toaj.stpi.niar.org.tw/index/journal/volume/article/4b1141f9917320a501919237a3230a7d
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)