blind

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound. Originally written as 𠑹, which depicts a blind person holding a cane with a missing lower eyelid.

Components

Sound component
drum
Meaning component
eye

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkuX[k]ˤaʔ blind

說文解字

《說文》:“瞽,目但有眹也。从目,鼓聲。”

Sources

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