zāo sediment, rotten, ruined

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
rice
Sound component
cáo plaintiff and defendant

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarttsaw[ts]ˤu dregs

說文解字

《說文》:“糟,酒滓也。从米,曹聲。,籀文从酉。”

Sources

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

tà, tā step on

Components

Meaning component
foot

foot

Sound component
dá, tà crowded, repeated

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangtʰuːb
Unicodetop

Sources

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