niú​lì​sū

ox tongue pastry

niú cow

Pictograph of the head of a cow.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Meaning (5 of 28 verified)

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngjuw[ŋ]ʷə (< uvular?)ox

說文解字

《說文》:“牛,大牲也,牛件也。件,事理也。象角頭三,封尾之形。”

Sources

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

(Cant.) tongue

Components

Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

meat

Sound component
lì, li benefit

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

butter

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
grain stalk
Sound component
yǒu wine

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangsŋaː

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang