狐狸
hú​li

fox

狐 hú species of fox

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

Components

犭
犭 Meaning component
quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

瓜
瓜 Sound component
guā melon

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[ɡ]ʷˤafox
Zhengzhangɡʷaː
Unicodeho

說文解字

䄏獸也。鬼所乘之。有三徳：其色中和，小前大後，死則丘首。从犬瓜聲。

Sources

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

狸 li fox

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 里 represents the sound. Simplified form of 貍.

Components

犭
犭 Meaning component
quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

里
里 Sound component
lǐ, li village

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartli[r]ə𧳏狸 *pə.[r]ə kind of wild cat (Jiāngnán pron. ap. Guō Pú, ca. 300 CE)
lip.rəkind of wild cat (pron. west of the Hángǔ pass, ap. Fāngyán)
Zhengzhangrɯ
Unicodeliə

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang