柳枝
liǔ​zhī

willow branch

柳 liǔ willow tree

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 卯 represents the sound. Simplified form of 栁.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
卯
卯 Sound component
mǎo 4th terrestrial branch

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
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
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartljuwX([m]ə.)ruʔwillow
Zhengzhangm·ruʔ
Unicodeliǒu

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

枝 zhī branches

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

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
支
支 Sound component
zhī support, hold up

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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsyeke branch (of tree)

說文解字

《說文》：“枝，木別生條也。从木，支聲。”

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)