Dong Chinese dictionary

ào, aò

mysterious

Phonosemantic compound. 宀 represents the meaning and 𢍏 represents the sound.

Components

宀 Meaning component

mián

roof

𢍏 Sound component

juàn

to roll rice into ball

奧 and 𢍏 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

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

Evolution

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Western Han dynasty (202 BC-9 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Cao Wei (Three Kingdoms: 222-280 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

ào

mysterious, obscure, profound; obscure; mysterious

Aò

Austria; Austrian; abbr. for 奧地利|奥地利[Aòdìlì]; Olympic; Olympics; abbr. for 奧林匹克|奥林匹克[Aòlínpǐkè]

Most common words with 奧

Sources