Original meaning: flesh under the chin of a cow
Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 古 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "flesh under the chin of a cow", which later shifted to "beard" (now written as 鬍 in traditional characters). Also used pejoratively to refer to foreigners from central Asia, who tended to have more beards than Han Chinese people. This meaning also shifted to "reckless" and "outrageous".
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hu | [g]ˤa | foreigners in the north |
說文解字
《說文》：“胡，牛垂也。从肉，古聲。”
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)
Simplified
Pictograph of a crack on a bone. In ancient China such cracks were used for fortune-telling.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | puwk | pˤok | divine (v.) |
說文解字
《說文》：“卜，灼剥龜也。象灸龜之形。一曰象龜兆之從橫也。，古文卜。”
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)
Depicts raw silk (糸) hanging from a rack.
Components
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | suH | [s]ˤak-s | white silk |
說文解字
《說文》：“素，白緻繒也。从糸、，取其澤也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.891-892
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Traditional
Components
Character Evolution
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | |
|---|---|---|
| Zhengzhang | raːl | |
| Unicode | lɑ |
說文解字
莪也。从艸羅聲。
Sources
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Zhengzhang Shangfang
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)