扶弱
fú​ruò

support the weak

扶 fú support

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 夫 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

夫
夫 Sound component
fu, fū man

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbjum-[p](r)acrawl; assist
Zhengzhangpa
ba
Unicodebhio

說文解字

左也。从手夫聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

弱 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
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
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

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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

溺搦蒻

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnyaknewk 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)