蜗居
wō​jū

dwell crampedly

蜗 wō a snail Simplified

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect

mollusk

呙
呙 Sound component
guō, wāi, hé chat

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

居 jū live

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

Components

户
户 Meaning component
hù, hu door
古
古 Sound component
gǔ old
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Warring States ~300 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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 Jin 266-420 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 9 verified)

据剧锯踞倨裾琚椐鋸

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

据踞

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkjok(r)a squat; stay, dwell
kjoka final particle
kjoHk(r)a-s (based on rhyme evidence)dwelling

說文解字

《說文》：“居，蹲也。从尸，古者居从古。踞，俗居从足。”

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)

蝸 wō a snail Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 虫 represents the meaning and 咼 represents the sound.

Components

虫
虫 Meaning component
chóng bug, insect
咼
咼 Sound component
chat

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartkwæk.rˤoj (dialect: *k.rˤ- > *kˤr-)snail
Zhengzhangkroːl
kʷroːl

說文解字

蝸蠃也。从虫咼聲。

Sources

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