qū​yóu

pour hot oil

qū, jùn to light

Components

Meaning component
huǒ fire

fire

Sound component
qūn to dawdle

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔsluːns
ʔsluns
sʰlud

說文解字

然火也。从火夋聲。《周禮》曰:“遂䶴其焌。”焌火在前,以焞焯龜。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

yóu oil

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

is a component form of .

Sound component
yóu cause

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartyuw[l][u] flow(ing)

說文解字

《說文》:“油,水。出武陵孱陵西,東南〔北〕入江。从水,由聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica