或
huò HSK2

or

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approved by Prismcool · Jan 23, 2024, 07:07 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Jan 23, 2024, 07:07 PM

Adjustment

Changed fields: components

Original meaning: area

Depicts using a weapon (戈) to defend an area (囗) in a boundary (一). Based on the original meaning "area", now written as 域. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

囗
囗 Iconic component

Depicts an area of land.

Change in meaning
囗 hints at the original meaning of 或, "area", which is no longer the most common meaning of 或 in modern Mandarin.
戈
戈 Iconic component

Depicts a weapon.

一
一 Iconic component

Depicts a boundary.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Spring and Autumn ~600 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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
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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthwok[ɢ]ʷˤək some; or
hwik[ɢ]ʷrək territory

說文解字

《說文》：“或，邦也。从囗，从戈以守一。一，地也。域，或又从土。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.864黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.40
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)