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”
Category: Pictograms
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”
斤 an axe
斤 jīn, a pictographic character of an axe, serves as a semantic component to form characters. Characters formed by the semantic component 斤 have to do with axe-alike tools or something related to the use of such tools, e.g. 斥, 斧, 斩, 断, 斯, 斫, 新, etc. Continue reading “斤 an axe”
矛 a spear
矛 máo, a pictographic character of a spear, serves as both semantic and phonetic component to form characters. Characters formed by the semantic component 矛 have to do with spears. Continue reading “矛 a spear”