桡骨
ráo​gǔ

radius

桡 ráo, náo bent or twisted piece of wood Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 木 represents the meaning and 尧 represents the sound. Simplified form of 橈.

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
尧
尧 Sound component
yáo a legendary ancient emperor-sage

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

骨 gǔ, gú bone

Pictograph of a bone (冎) with a muscle (肉) attached to it.

Components

冎
冎 SoundIconic component
guǎ bone
肉
肉 Iconic component
ròu meat

Deceptively similar but unrelated to 月.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 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
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (4 of 21 verified)

骸髓骼骷髅骰體骶髁髋髂骱髌髑髀骺骯髒髕髏髖

Sound (1 of 4 verified)

滑猾鹘鶻

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkwotkˤut bone

說文解字

《說文》：“骨，肉之覈也。从冎，有肉。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.336
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

橈 bent or twisted piece of wood Traditional

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

Components

木
木 Meaning component
mù tree
堯
堯 Sound component
legendary ancient emperor-sage

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnræwH[n]ˤrew-sbent wood
nyew[ŋ]ew (< uvular?)oar
Zhengzhangrŋaːws
ŋjew
Unicodenjiɛu

說文解字

曲木。从木堯聲。

Sources

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