Originally depicted a person carrying an axe while singing. Now a phonosemantic compound. 欠 (pictograph of a person opening their mouth) represents the meaning and 哥 represents the sound.
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | ka | [k]ˤaj | sing, song |
說文解字
《說文》：“歌，詠也。从欠，哥聲。謌，謌（歌）或从言。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.696
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Depicts a woman sitting or squatting down.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | nrjoX | nraʔ | female |
| nrjoH | nraʔ-s | give as a wife |
說文解字
《說文》：“女，婦人也。象形。王育說。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.848
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)