弩
nǔ

cross-bow

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

Components

弓
弓 Meaning component
gōng bow
奴
奴 Sound component
nú slave

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnuXC.nˤaʔcrossbow
Zhengzhangnaːʔ

說文解字

弓有臂者。《周禮》四弩：夾弩、庾弩、唐弩、大弩。从弓奴聲。

Sources

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