狸猫
lí​māo

leopard cat

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

猫 māo cat Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 苗 represents the sound. Simplified form of 貓.

Components

犭
犭 Meaning component
quǎn dog

犭 is a component form of 犬.

苗
苗 Sound component
miáo sprouts

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmrew

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang

貓 māo cat Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 豸 represents the meaning and 苗 represents the sound.

Components

豸
豸 Meaning component
zhì (dhole), beast
苗
苗 Sound component
miáo sprouts

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmaewC.mˤraw cat

說文解字

《說文新附》：“貓，貍屬。从豸，苗聲。”

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)