曹余章
Cáo Yú​zhāng

Cao Yuzhang

曹 cáo plaintiff and defendant

Phonosemantic compound. 㯥 represents the sound and 曰 represents the meaning. Depicts a pair (㯥) of people speaking (曰) against each other, i.e. a plaintiff and a defendant. The meaning later expanded to "of the same generation".

Components

㯥
㯥 SoundMeaning component
cáo, zāo pair

The character 東 was originally a pictograph of a basket. This component is a pair of 東 merged together.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
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

Component uses

Sound (1 of 8 verified)

遭糟槽嘈漕螬艚蹧

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartdzawN-tsˤu come together; pair

說文解字

《說文》：，獄之兩曹也。在廷東，从，治事者，从曰。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫李学勤《字源》p.417
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

余 yú I Simplified

Original meaning: residence

Pictograph of a small shelter. Based on the original meaning "residence", now written as 舍. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Qin 221-206 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (9 of 17 verified)

除途茶徐舍叙涂斜俞荼馀蜍餘狳酴敘嵞

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

畬艅

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyola 1sg., prob. a polite form

說文解字

《說文》：“余，語之舒也。从八，舍省聲。，二余也，讀與余同。”

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)

章 zhāng chapter, seal

Original meaning: jade ornament

Possibly depicts using a blade (䇂) to engrave a block of jade. Based on the original meaning "jade ornament", now written as 璋. Later the meaning shifted to "seal" and "chapter".

Components

䇂
䇂 Iconic component
qiān sickle, curved blade
◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a block of jade.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 13 verified)

障彰璋漳樟蟑瘴嶂鄣獐幛嫜鱆

Iconic (2)

赣贛

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

幛

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyangtaŋ brilliant; distinctive mark; to display

說文解字

《說文》：“章，樂竟為一章。从音，从十。十，數之終也。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.198
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

餘 excess, remainder Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 飠 represents the meaning and 余 represents the sound.

Components

飠
飠 Meaning component
eat

飠 is a component form of 食.

余
余 Sound component
yú I

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyola remains; surplus

說文解字

《說文》：“餘，饒也。从食，余聲。”

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)