索多玛
Suǒ​duō​mǎ

Sodom

索 suǒ, suo large rope

Pictograph of two hands (廾) twisting together a long rope (糸). The meaning later expanded to "search" and "demand".

Components

廾
廾 Iconic component
gǒng two hands

Depicts two hands twisting a rope.

糸
糸 Iconic component
mì, sī silk

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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
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 (0 of 1 verified)

嗦

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsak[s]ˤak twist a rope
sak[s]ˤak search (v.)

說文解字

《說文》：“索，艸有莖葉可作繩索。从糸。杜林說：，亦朱字。”

Sources

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

多 duō much

Depicts two pieces of meat together to convey the meaning "much" or "plentiful". In ancient China meat was a rare treat. Unrelated to 夕.

Components

肉
肉 Iconic component
ròu meat

Depicts a piece of meat.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 肉 than it was in ancient scripts.
肉
肉 Iconic component
ròu meat

Depicts a piece of meat.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 肉 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Spring and Autumn ~500 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
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (3 of 6 verified)

移爹侈哆黟眵

Meaning (3 of 4 verified)

够夥奓夠

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartta[t.l]ˤaj many

說文解字

《說文》：“多，重也。从重夕。夕者，相繹也，故為多。重夕為多，重日為。，古文多。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.557
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

玛 mǎ agate stone Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 玉 represents the meaning and 马 represents the sound. Simplified form of 瑪.

Components

𤣩
𤣩 Meaning component
yù jade
马
马 Sound component
mǎ horse

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode

瑪 agate stone Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 玉 represents the meaning and 馬 represents the sound.

Components

𤣩
𤣩 Meaning component
yù jade
馬
馬 Sound component
mǎ horse

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangmraːʔ
Unicodemǎ

Sources

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