Read Edit View history 约 yuēyāo HSK3 agreement Origin Definitions Defs Strokes Stroke Words Sentences Sents ← Back to history approved by Peter Olson · Apr 26, 2021, 06:17 PM · Reviewed by Peter Olson on Apr 26, 2021, 06:17 PM verify Changed fields: gloss, hint, originalMeaning, isVerified, customSources Original meaning: bind Simplified form of 約. Phonosemantic compound. 纟 represents the meaning and 勺 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "bind". The meaning later shifted to "agreement", "restrain", "keep under control", "appointment", and "approximately". Components 纟 纟 Meaning component mì silk 纟 is a component form of 糸. 勺 勺 Sound component sháo, shuò, zhuó spoon Change in sound 约 and 勺 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese. 约 *[q](r)ewk 勺 *m-tewk Historical Pronunciations Sources Character origin 漢語多功能字庫Readings & variants Unicode