In bone and bronze inscriptions, 冬 resembles the two ends of a knotted rope, indicating that the winter is the end of a year. 冬 is cognate of 终. Later the meaning of 冬 is extended to “winter”. 冬 serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Continue reading “冬 the end of a year”
Category: Decode Characters
米 rice
米, a pictographic character of rice, serves as a semantic component to express meanings related to rice, grain, food, etc, e.g. 类/類, 粒, 糟, 粕, 糕, 粳, 粉, 粮/糧 and so forth. 米 also serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Continue reading “米 rice”
豆 a food container
豆, originally a food container, serves as a semantic component to express meanings related to food container or bean. 豆 also serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Continue reading “豆 a food container”
Compmonent 酉 a jar for storing liquors
酉, a pictographic character of a jar or vase for storing liquors, mainly serves as a semantic component to form characters. The characters formed by the semantic component 酉 express meanings related to liquor, food or things produced by fermentation such as seasoning, condiments, relish, etc, e.g. 醋, 醇, 醉, 醛, 醒, 酌, 配, 酗 and so on.
Continue reading “Compmonent 酉 a jar for storing liquors”
戈 dagger-axe or halberd
戈, a pictographic character of a dagger-axe or halberd, serves as semantic component to form characters. 戈 mainly appears in ideographs e.g. 戊 戌 我 成 戍 或 伐 戕 戎 戒 戡 截 etc or phono-semantic compounds of left-right structure, e.g. 战, 戡, etc to express things related to weapons, war or killing. Continue reading “戈 dagger-axe or halberd”