苦涩
kǔ​sè

bitter and astringent

苦 kǔ bitter

Phonosemantic compound. 艹 represents the meaning and 古 represents the sound.

Components

艹
艹 Meaning component
cao, cǎo grass

艹 is a component form of 艸.

古
古 Sound component
gǔ old

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 1 verified)

楛

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

楛

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkhuXkʰˤaʔ bitter

說文解字

大苦，苓也。从艸古聲。

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)

涩 sè astringent Simplified

Original meaning: unsmooth

Simplified form of 澀. Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 歰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "unsmooth". The meaning later shifted to "rough" and "astringent".

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

歰
歰 SoundMeaningSimplified component
sè, shà unsmooth

Sources

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

澀 astringent Traditional

Original meaning: unsmooth

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 歰 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "unsmooth". The meaning later shifted to "rough" and "astringent".

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

歰
歰 SoundMeaning component
sè, shà unsmooth

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangsrɯb
Unicodeshrip

Sources

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