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
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hwok | [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)
Original meaning: burn
Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 肰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "burn", now written as 燃. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Sound (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nyen | [n]a[n] | so, thus; (adv suffix) |
說文解字
《說文》：“然，燒也。从火，肰聲。，或从艸、難。”
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)