徒
túTú HSK6

disciple

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approved by inralback19 · Feb 15, 2026, 02:14 PM · Reviewed by inralback19 on Feb 15, 2026, 02:14 PM

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Original meaning: go on foot

Phonosemantic compound. 辵 represents the meaning and 土 represents the sound. 土 also represents the meaning. Based on the original meaning "go on foot". The meaning later shifted to "disciple".

Components

辵
辵 Meaning component
chuò walk
Change in meaning
辵 hints at the original meaning of 徒, "go on foot", which is no longer the most common meaning of 徒 in modern Mandarin.
土
土 SoundMeaning component
tǔ earth

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdu[d]ˤa go on foot

說文解字

《說文》：“，步行也。从辵，土聲。”

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)