Original meaning: young woman of marriageable age
Pictograph of a woman (母) with a hairpin in her hair. In ancient China, women of marriageable age wore a hairpin. Based on the original meaning "young woman of marriageable age". The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | mwojX | mˤəʔ | each |
說文解字
《說文》：“，艸盛上出也。从屮，母聲。”
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)
Simplified
Pictograph of one stalk of bamboo. Same as one half of the character for bamboo (竹).
Character Evolution
Component uses
Iconic (1)
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kaH | kˤa[r]-s | tally, piece, item |
Sources
- Character origin
- Wiktionary
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
Traditional
Components
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | kaH | kˤa[r]-s | piece, item |
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart