丩, cognate of 纠, a pictographic character of a tangled rope, serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Continue reading “丩 tangled rope”
Tag: phonetic
午 a pestle
午, a pictographic character resembling a pestle for grinding rice, now represented by 杵, serves as a phonetic component. Continue reading “午 a pestle”
冬 the end of a year
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”
乏 not straight
乏 is the reversed writing of 正, and the original meaning of 乏 is: not straight, skewed. 乏 serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Continue reading “乏 not straight”
亭 a pavilion
亭, a pictographic character of a pavilion, serves as a phonetic component to form characters. Most of the characters formed by the phonetic component 亭 are in the left-right structure with 亭 on the right side. Continue reading “亭 a pavilion”