蠱
gǔ

poison

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approved by Prismcool · Oct 31, 2023, 08:10 PM · Reviewed by Prismcool on Oct 31, 2023, 08:10 PM

Added etymology

Changed fields: hint, isVerified, components, customSources

Depicts poisonous insects (蟲) placed in a container (皿). Alludes to the practice of cultivating poisonous insects inside a container by letting all of the insects devour each other until one poisonous insects remains to use as poison.

Components

蟲
蟲 Iconic component

Used here to depict poisonous insects.

皿
皿 Iconic component

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkuX[k]ˤaʔ noxious vermin

說文解字

《說文》：“蠱，腹中蟲也。《春秋》傳曰：‘皿蟲為蠱。’晦淫之所生也。臬桀死之鬼亦為蠱。从蟲、从皿。皿，物之用也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫Wikipedia
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)