Dong Chinese dictionary

yào, yāo

want

Original meaning:

waist

Pictograph of two hands grabbing a woman's (女) waist. The current meaning "want" is a phonetic loan. The original meaning "waist" is now written as 腰.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts two hands grabbing a waist.

◎ hints at the original meaning of 要, "waist", which is no longer the most common meaning of 要 in modern Mandarin.

女 Iconic component

nǚ, rǔ

woman

Evolution

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

要

yào

necessary, essential; necessity; important; vital; to want; to ask for; will; going to (as future auxiliary); may; must; (used in a comparison) must be; probably; if

要

yāo

to demand; to request; to coerce

Most common words with 要