弱项 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

ruò weak

Original meaning: urinate

Depicts two people urinating (尿). Based on the original meaning "urinate", now written as 尿/溺. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

尿 Iconic component

niào urine

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 尿 than it was in ancient scripts.

尿 Iconic component

niào urine

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 尿 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

溺搦蒻

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	nyak	newk	weak

說文解字

《說文》：“弱，橈也，上象橈曲，彡象毛氂橈弱也。弱物并，故从二。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.705
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

xiàng neck Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 页 represents the meaning and 工 represents the sound. Simplified form of 項.

Components

工 Sound component

gōng work

Change in sound

项 and 工 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
项 *[g]ˤroŋʔ
工 *kˤoŋ

页 Meaning component

yè page

Depicts a head.

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

xiàng neck Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 頁 represents the meaning and 工 represents the sound.

Components

工 Sound component

gōng work

Change in sound

項 and 工 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
項 *[g]ˤroŋʔ
工 *kˤoŋ

頁 Meaning component

yè (head), page

Depicts a head.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	haewngX	[g]ˤroŋʔ	neck

說文解字

《說文》：“項，頭後也。从頁，工聲。”

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)

弱 ruò weak

Components

Character Evolution

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

项 xiàng neck Simplified

Components

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

項 xiàng neck Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

ruò weak

xiàng neck Simplified

xiàng neck Traditional