Dong Chinese dictionary

cáo

plaintiff and defendant

Phonosemantic compound. 㯥 represents the sound and 曰 represents the meaning. Depicts a pair (㯥) of people speaking (曰) against each other, i.e. a plaintiff and a defendant. The meaning later expanded to "of the same generation".

Components

㯥 Sound Meaning component

cáo

pair

The character 東 was originally a pictograph of a basket. This component is a pair of 東 merged together.

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

曰 Meaning component

yuē

say

Evolution

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)

Bronze script

Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Regular script

Modern

Definitions

曹

cáo

ministry officials; surname; class or grade; generation; plaintiff and defendant (old); government department (old)

曹

Cáo

surname Cao; Zhou Dynasty vassal state

Most common words with 曹

Freq.	Word	Meaning
	曹	generation
	曹操	the main villain of novel the Romance of Three Kingdoms 三國演義\|三国演义
	曹雪芹	Cao Xueqin (c. 1715-c. 1764), accepted author of A Dream of Red Mansions 紅樓夢\|红楼梦[HónglóuMèng]
	曹植	Cao Zhi (192-232), son of Cao Cao 曹操, noted poet and calligrapher
	曹刚川	Cao Gangchuan (1935-), former artillery officer, senior PRC politician and army leader

Component uses

Sound component in 8 characters (1 verified)

Sources

MTSU Chinese text computing

漢語多功能字庫

李学勤《字源》p.417

Freq.

Word

Meaning