枷锁
jiā​suǒ

bondage

枷 jiā, jià cangue scaffold

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 加 represents the sound.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
加
加 Sound component
jiā add

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangɡa
ɡal
kraːl

說文解字

柫也。从木加聲。淮南謂之柍。

Sources

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

锁 suǒ lock Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 钅 represents the meaning and 𭕆 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鎖.

Components

钅
钅 Meaning component
jīn metal

钅 is a component form of 金.

𭕆
𭕆 Sound component
suǒ fragments

Sources

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

鎖 suǒ lock Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 釒 represents the meaning and 𧴪 represents the sound.

Components

釒
釒 Meaning component
jīn metal
𧴪
𧴪 Sound component
suǒ fragments

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartswaX[s]ˤojʔ chain

說文解字

《說文新附》：“鎖，鐵鎖，門鍵也。从金，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)