Dong Chinese dictionary

pǒu

to spit out

Original meaning:

not

Originally the same character as 否. A distinguishing mark was added later to the character to differentiate it from 咅. The current meaning "to spit out" is a phonetic loan.

Components

丶 Distinguishing component

zhǔ

dot

Mark used to differentiate 咅 from 否.

否 Sound Meaning component

fǒu, pǐ

not

否 hints at the original meaning of 咅, "not", which is no longer the most common meaning of 咅 in modern Mandarin.

Evolution

Bronze script

Late Spring and Autumn (~500 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Qin dynasty (221-206 BC)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

咅

pǒu

to spit out; pooh; pah; bah; (today used as a phonetic component in 部[bù], 倍[bèi], 培[péi], 剖[pōu] etc)

Component uses

Sound component in 16 characters (4 verified)

Sources

李学勤《字源》p.448