猜猜看
cāi​cāi​kàn

guess

猜 cāi guess

Original meaning: viciously resent

Phonosemantic compound. 犭 represents the meaning and 青 represents the sound. Meanings derived from resentful suspicion.

Components

犭
犭 Meaning component
quǎn dog

犭(dog, animal) signifies animalistic sentiment.

Change in meaning
犭 hints at the original meaning of 猜, "viciously resent", which is no longer the most common meaning of 猜 in modern Mandarin.
青
青 Sound component
qīng green or blue
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

說文解字

《說文》：“猜，恨賊也。从犬，青聲。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

看 kàn, kān look

Phonosemantic compound. 目 represents the meaning and 倝 represents the sound.

Components

倝
倝 SoundRemnant component
gàn sunrise
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 倝 than it was in ancient scripts.
目
目 Meaning component
mù eye

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkhankʰˤa[r] to watch, guard
khanH[kʰ]ˤa[r]-s gaze at

說文解字

《說文》：“看，睎也。从手下目。，看或从倝。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.268-269
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)