幼儿教育

幼 yòu young, infant

Someone who is young has weak (幺) strength (力). 幺 also represents the sound.

Components

幺
幺 SoundMeaning component
yāo tiny

Used here to allude to being tiny and weak.

力
力 Meaning component
lì, li power

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 6 verified)

黝拗坳窈蚴呦

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

蚴

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'jiwH[ʔ](r)iw-s young

說文解字

《說文》：“幼，少也。从幺，从力。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.338漢語多功能字庫中華語文知識庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

儿 r, ér child

Simplified form of 兒. Variant form of 人, a pictograph of a human.

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Simplified (1)

党

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

禿

說文解字

《說文》：“儿，仁人也。古文奇字人也。象形。孔子曰：在人下，故詰屈。”

Sources

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

教 jiào, jiāo teach

Depicts teaching a child (子) mathematics or divination (爻) using a rod (攵).

Components

爻
爻 SoundIconic component
yáo, xiào diagrams for divination
子
子 Iconic component
zi, zǐ child
攵
攵 Iconic component
pū tap

攵 is a component form of 攴.


Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 475-221 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Warring States 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 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 Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkaews.[k]ˤraw teach
kaewHs.kˤraw-s teaching; instruction

說文解字

《說文》：“教，上所施下所效也。从攴，从。，古文教；，亦古文教。”

Sources

Character origin
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)

育 yù to have children

Phonosemantic compound. 𠫓 represents the meaning and ⺼ represents the sound. Originally written as 毓.

Components

𠫓
𠫓 Iconic component
tū, yù newborn

Depicts an upside-down child being born head-first. Upside-down rotation of 子.

⺼
⺼ Sound component
ròu meat, flesh
Change in sound

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
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

唷淯

Unknown (0 of 1 verified)

澈

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyuwkm-quk breed, produce

說文解字

養子使作善也。从𠫓肉聲。《虞書》曰：“教育子。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫季旭昇《說文新證》p.974
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)