幼稚
yòu​zhì HSK7

childish

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)

稚 zhì young

Phonosemantic compound. 禾 represents the meaning and 隹 represents the sound. Simplified form of 稺.

Components

禾
禾 Meaning component
hé grain stalk
隹
隹 Sound component
zhuī, cuī, wéi bird

Character Evolution

Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdrijHlrəj-syoung
Zhengzhangl'ils
Unicodedjhì

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica