蛙式
wā​shì

breaststroke

蛙 wā frog

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 圭 represents the sound. Simplified form of 鼃.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
圭
圭 Sound component
guī jade pointed at top

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagart'waeqʷˤre (MC -ae for -ea)frog
'weaqʷˤrefrog
hwaem-qʷˤre (MC -ae for -ea)frog
hweam-qʷˤrefrog
Zhengzhangqʷraː
qʷreː
Unicodequa

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang

式 shì, shi style

Phonosemantic compound. 工 represents the meaning and 弋 represents the sound.

Components

工
工 Meaning component
gōng work
弋
弋 Sound component
yì to shoot
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 7 verified)

试轼拭弑試弒軾

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartsyikl̥ək pattern
syikl̥ək to wipe

說文解字

《說文》：“式，法也。从工，弋聲。”

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)