xiàng​mào

appearance

xiāng, xiàng mutual

Original meaning: look at

Depicts an eye () looking at a tree (). Based on the original meaning "look at". The meaning of this character has shifted over time to "compare" and "each other".

Components

Iconic component
tree
Iconic component
eye

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 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 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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 8 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsjang[s]aŋ mutually
sjangH[s]aŋ-s appearance, quality

說文解字

《說文》:“相,省視也。从目,从木。《易》曰:‘地可觀者莫可觀於木。’《詩》曰:‘相鼠有皮。’”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.267漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

mào appearance

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and a remnant of represents the sound.

Components

SoundRemnant component
bào leopard
SoundMeaning component
mào face, countenance

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartmaewHmˤrawk-s appearance, manner

說文解字

《說文》:“皃,頌儀也。从人,白象人面形。,皃或从頁,豹省聲。貌,籀文皃,从豹省。”

Sources

Character origin
李学勤《字源》p.759-760
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica