姚
yáoYáo

handsome

Phonosemantic compound. 女 represents the meaning and 兆 represents the sound.

Components

女
女 Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
兆
兆 Sound component
zhào omen

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhanglew
Unicodeiɛu

說文解字

虞舜居姚虛，因以爲姓。从女兆聲。或爲姚，嬈也。《史篇》以爲：姚，易也。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)