腹股沟
fù​gǔ​gōu

groin

腹 fù stomach

Phonosemantic compound. ⺼ represents the meaning and 复 represents the sound.

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

复
复 Sound component
fù return

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpjuwkp(r)ukbelly
Zhengzhangpuɡ
Unicodebiuk

說文解字

厚也。从肉复聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

股 gǔ, gu thighs

Originally written as 夃, depicting a person with a marker indicating the location of the thigh. Later the ⺼ component was added.

Components

⺼
⺼ Meaning component
ròu meat, flesh

⺼ is a component form of 肉.

夃
夃 SoundMeaning component
gū, yíng thigh

Modern form looks like 殳.

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

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkuXkʷˤaʔ thigh

說文解字

《說文》：“股，髀也。从肉，殳聲。”

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)

沟 gōu ditch, ravine Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 勾 represents the sound. Simplified form of 溝.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

勾
勾 Sound component
gōu hook

勾 is a component form of 句.

Sources

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

溝 gōu ditch, ravine Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 冓 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

冓
冓 Sound component
gòu, gōu a secluded place

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 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
Clerical form
Clerical Western Jin 266-316 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkuw[k]ˤ(r)o irrigation canal

說文解字

《說文》：“溝，水瀆，廣四尺，深四尺。从水，冓聲。”

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)