kòng​gǔ

holding

kòng control

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

is a component form of .

Sound component
kōng, kòng empty

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkhuwngHkʰˤoŋ-s pull (on bow or reins)

說文解字

《說文》:“控,引也。从手,空聲。《詩》曰:‘控于大邦。’匈奴名引弓控弦。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

gǔ, gu thighs

Originally written as , depicting a person with a marker indicating the location of the thigh. Later the ⺼ component was added.

Components

Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of .

SoundMeaning component
gū, yíng thigh

Modern form looks like .

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkuXkʷˤaʔ thigh

說文解字

《說文》:“股,髀也。从肉,殳聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica