róu

tan

To soften  leather  also provides the pronunciation

Components

Meaning component
leather
SoundMeaning component
róu soft, flexible

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmju
mjus

說文解字

耎也。从革从柔,柔亦聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica