diào
condole
Original meaning:
silk streamers used for arrows
Depicts a person carrying silk streamers used for wrapping around arrows with. Based on the original meaning "silk streamers used for arrows", now written as 繳. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.
Components
Evolution

Oracle script
(~1250-1000 BC)
Bronze script
Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
Seal script
Shuowen (~100 AD)
Clerical script
Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)Regular script
ModernDefinitions
Most common words with 弔
Freq. | Word | Meaning |
---|---|---|
to lament | ||
to revoke | ||
to hang oneself | ||
death by hanging | ||
suspenders |
Component uses
Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)
Historical pronunciation
Old Chinese | Middle Chinese | Pinyin | Gloss |
*tˤ[i]wk | tek | diào | arrive |
*tˤ[e]wk-s | tewH | diào | grieved; condole |
Statistics
Not found in HSK word list
Appears in 13.1667% of movies
1804th most common character in movies
2050th most common character in books
Miscellaneous
Strokes | 4 |
Unicode | U+5F14 |
Shuowen | “弔,問終也。古之葬者,厚衣之以薪,从人持弓,會敺禽。” |
Sources
季旭昇《說文新證》p.639-640
黃德寬《古文字譜系疏證》p.838-839
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