赤道几内亚 Origin — Chinese Character Wiki

chì red

Depicts the color of a large (大) fire (火).

Components

大 Meaning component

dà, dài big

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 大 than it was in ancient scripts.

火 Meaning component

huǒ fire

Change in form

Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 火 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Meaning (1 of 3 verified)

赫赭赧

Sound (0 of 3 verified)

郝赦哧

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	tsyhek	[t-qʰ](r)Ak	red

說文解字

《說文》：“赤，南方色也。从大、从火。烾，古文从炎、土。”

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)

dào, dao path

Phonosemantic compound. 辶 represents the meaning and 首 represents the sound.

Components

辶 Meaning component

chuò walk

辶 is a component form of 辵.

首 Sound component

shǒu head

Change in sound

道 and 首 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
道 *lˤuʔ-s
首 *l̥uʔ-s

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1)

導

Meaning (1)

導

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dawH	lˤuʔ-s	show the way
	dawX	[kə.l]ˤuʔ	way

說文解字

所行道也。从辵从𩠐。一達謂之道。

Sources

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

jǐ, jī small table Simplified

Pictograph of a small table. In simplified Chinese 几 is also used to mean "how much", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 幾.

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	kijX	C.kr[ə]jʔ	stool

說文解字

《說文》：“几，踞几也。象形。”

Sources

Character origin: 季旭昇《說文新證》p.929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)

nèi inside Simplified

Depicts a person (人) inside a building (冂).

Components

人 Iconic component

rén, ren person

冂 Iconic component

jiōng, jiǒng large room

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (5 of 13 verified)

纳呐钠讷芮衲蚋肭納枘鈉㕯訥

說文解字

《說文》：“內，入也。从口，自外而入也。”

Sources

Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

yà Asia, sub- Simplified

Original meaning: tomb

Simplified form of 亞. Depicts a wooden structure where coffins are placed. Based on the original meaning "tomb". The current meaning "Asia" is a phonetic loan.