戏台
xì​tái

stage

戏 xì play Simplified

Original meaning: military troops outside the main group

Simplified form of 戲. Phonosemantic compound. 戈 represents the meaning and 䖒 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "military troops outside the main group". The meaning later shifted to "sport" and "play".

Components

又
又 Simplified component
yòu again

Shorthand for the 䖒 component in the traditional character 戲.

戈
戈 Meaning component
gē spear
Change in meaning
戈 hints at the original meaning of 戏, "military troops outside the main group", which is no longer the most common meaning of 戏 in modern Mandarin.

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

台 tái platform Simplified

Originally 台 and 㠯 were pronounced the same and thus written the same. Later 口 was added to distinguish the characters.

Components

口
口 Distinguishing component
kǒu, kou mouth
㠯
㠯 SoundRemnant component
yǐ by means of

㠯 is an ancient variant of 以.

Change in sound
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 㠯 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (5 of 24 verified)

治始抬胎怡怠苔殆贻诒迨笞饴跆邰炱眙骀鲐绐詒颱貽飴

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyilə I, me

說文解字

《說文》：“台，說也。从口，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)

戲 xì play Traditional

Original meaning: military troops outside the main group

Phonosemantic compound. 戈 represents the meaning and 䖒 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "military troops outside the main group". The meaning later shifted to "sport" and "play".

Components

䖒
䖒 Sound component
xī earthenware with the shape of a bean
戈
戈 Meaning component
gē spear
Change in meaning
戈 hints at the original meaning of 戲, "military troops outside the main group", which is no longer the most common meaning of 戲 in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartxjeHŋ̊(r)ar-s sport, joke

說文解字

《說文》：“戲，三軍之偏也。一曰兵也。从戈，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)

臺 tower, platform Traditional

Depicts a tall (高) building (室).

Components

高
高 MeaningRemnant component
gāo high
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 高 than it was in ancient scripts.
室
室 Meaning component
shì room

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 3 verified)

薹擡檯

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartdojlˤə tower

說文解字

《說文》：“臺，觀，四方而高者。从至、从之、从高省。與室屋同意。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.830
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)