Hú Quán

Hu Quan

beard

Original meaning: flesh under the chin of a cow

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "flesh under the chin of a cow", which later shifted to "beard" (now written as 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

Sound component
old
Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of .

Change in meaning
hints at the original meaning of , "flesh under the chin of a cow", which is no longer the most common meaning of in modern Mandarin.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (4 of 13 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagarthu[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

quán weigh Simplified

Components

Meaning component
jīn metal

metal

Sound component
quán entire

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

weigh Traditional

Components

Meaning component
jīn metal

metal

Sound component
quán entire

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangsʰlon
Unicodetsiuɛn

說文解字

衡也。从金全聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica