cāo grasp, control

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

is a component form of .

Sound component
zào, sào, qiāo chirping of birds

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttshawX[tsʰ]ˤawʔ grasp (v.)
tshawH[tsʰ]ˤawʔ-s (what is grasped:) principles

說文解字

《說文》:“操,把持也。从手,喿聲。”

Sources

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

you

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
rén person

is a component form of .

SoundMeaning component
ěr you

and don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Middle Chinese.

Component uses

Sound (1)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangnɯʔ

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

mā, ma mother Simplified

Simplified form of . Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
Sound component
horse

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

mā, ma mother Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
nǚ, nü woman
Sound component
horse

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmaːʔ

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang