照葫芦画瓢
zhào​hú​lu​huà​piáo

copy slavishly

照 zhào shine

Phonosemantic compound. 灬 represents the meaning and 昭 represents the sound.

Components

灬
灬 Meaning component
biāo, huǒ fire

灬 is a component form of 火.

昭
昭 SoundMeaning component
zhāo, zhào bright

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarttsyewHtaw-s shine on

說文解字

《說文》：“照，明也。从火，昭聲。”

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)

葫 hú bottle-gourd

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 胡 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

胡
胡 Sound component
hú beard

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[ɡ]ˤagourd
Zhengzhangqʰaː
ɡaː

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

芦 lú, lu rushes Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 户 represents the sound. Simplified form of 蘆.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

户
户 Sound component
hù, hu door

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

画 huà a painting Simplified

Pictograph of a hand holding a writing utensil (聿) and drawing something. The simplified character 画 was adapted from a variant.

Components

畫
聿 Deleted component
yù writing brush
◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a picture being drawn.

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

瓢 piáo ladle made from dried gourd

Phonosemantic compound. 瓜 represents the meaning and 票 represents the sound.

Components

瓜
瓜 Meaning component
guā melon
票
票 Sound component
piào slip of paper or bamboo

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartbjiew(Cə.)[b]ewgourd
Zhengzhangbew
Unicodebhiɛu

說文解字

蠡也。从瓠省，㶾聲。

Sources

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

蘆 lú, lu rushes Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 盧 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

盧
盧 Sound component
rice vessel

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartluC.rˤalúwěi 蘆葦 reed
Zhengzhangraː
ra
Unicodelo

說文解字

蘆菔也。一曰薺根。从艸盧聲。

Sources

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

畫 huà a painting Traditional

Pictograph of a hand holding a writing utensil (聿) and drawing something.

Components

聿
聿 Iconic component
yù writing brush
周
周 Iconic component
zhōu cycle

Depicts a carved jade object.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 周 than it was in ancient scripts.
乂
乂 Unknown component
yì, ài mow grass

Upper frame? of the drawing, found in the simplified form and possibly in the variant 𬚪

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Mid Western Zhou ~900 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
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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

Component uses

Sound (1)

劃

Meaning (1)

劃

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthweaHC-gʷˤrek-s drawing (n.)
hweakgʷˤrek draw (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“畫，界也。象田四界，聿所以畫之。，古文畫省。亦古文畫。”

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)