弧
hú HSK7

wooden bow

Phonosemantic compound. 弓 represents the meaning and 瓜 represents the sound.

Components

弓
弓 Meaning component
gōng bow
瓜
瓜 Sound component
guā melon

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[ɡ]ʷˤabow; bend, curved
Zhengzhangɡʷlaː
Unicodeho

說文解字

木弓也。从弓瓜聲。一曰往體寡，來體多曰弧。

Sources

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