dū​chá

inspector

supervise

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Sound component
shū, shu uncle
Meaning component
eye

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangʔl'uːwɢ

說文解字

《說文》:“督,察也。一曰目痛也。从目,叔聲。”

Sources

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

chá examine

Original meaning: eaves

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "eaves". The meaning later shifted to "observe from above", "examine", and "inspect".

Components

Meaning component
mián roof
Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "eaves", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.
Sound component
jì, zhài sacrifice to
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 5 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsrheat[tsʰ]ˤret examine

說文解字

《說文》:“察,覆也。从宀、祭。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica