独裁 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

dú alone Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 蜀 represents the sound. Simplified form of 獨.

Components

犭 Meaning component

quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

虫 Simplified component

chóng bug, insect

Shorthand for the phonetic 蜀 component in the traditional character 獨.

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode

cái cut out

To cut 戈 cloth 衣

Components

𢦏 Sound Meaning component

zāi to cut

衣 Meaning component

yī clothes

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzoj	[dz]ˤə	cut out clothes

說文解字

《說文》：“裁，制衣也。从衣，聲。”

Sources

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

dú alone Traditional

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

Components

犭 Meaning component

quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

蜀 Sound component

shǔ short name for Sichuan

Change in sound

獨 and 蜀 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
獨 *[d]ˤok
蜀 *[d]ok

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

▼ More ▲ Less

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	duwk	[d]ˤok	alone; only

說文解字

《說文》：“獨，犬相得而鬭也。从犬，蜀聲。羊為羣，犬為獨也。一曰北囂山有獨獸，如虎，白身，豕鬣，尾如馬。”

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)

独 dú alone Simplified

Components

Sources

裁 cái cut out

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

獨 dú alone Traditional

Components

Character Evolution

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

Sources

dú alone Simplified

cái cut out

dú alone Traditional