表
biǎo HSK2

exterior surface

Depicts clothes (衣) made from fur (毛), typically the outermost layer of clothing. In simplified Chinese 表 is also used to mean "wristwatch", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 錶.

Components

毛
毛 Meaning component
máo, mao hair
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 毛 than it was in ancient scripts.
衣
衣 Meaning component
yī clothes

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
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 Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartpjewXp(r)awʔ exterior

說文解字

《說文》:“表,上衣也。从衣,从毛‧古者衣裘,以毛為表。,古文表从麃。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica

錶 wristwatch Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 釒 represents the meaning and 表 represents the sound.

Components

釒
釒 Meaning component
jīn metal
表
表 Sound component
biǎo exterior surface

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Regular Modern

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical images
Academia Sinica