Dong Chinese dictionary

yōu

sad

Phonosemantic compound. 心 represents the meaning and 夔 represents the sound.

Components

kuí

one-legged monster

憂 and 夔 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.憂 /*ʔ(r)u/
夔 /*ɡrul/

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

心 Meaning component

xīn

heart

Evolution

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

yōu

sad, grieved; grief, melancholy; to worry; to concern oneself with; worried; anxiety; sorrow; (literary) to observe mourning

Most common words with 憂

Component uses

Sound component in 3 characters (2 verified)

Sources

季旭昇《說文新證》p.793-794