Chinese Character Wiki
丑

chǒu

second earthly branch; (simp.) ugly

Depicts of a hand or paw with fingernails or claws. The current meaning is a phonetic loan. In simplified Chinese 丑 is also used to mean "ugly", while in traditional Chinese this meaning is written with a separate character 醜.

Evolution

丑 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
丑 Bronze script Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)

Bronze script

Early Western Zhou (~1000 BC)
丑 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
丑 Clerical script Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)

Clerical script

Eastern Han dynasty (25-220 AD)
丑 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

丑  

Chǒu

surname Chou

丑  

chǒu

clown; 2nd earthly branch: 1-3 a.m., 12th solar month (6th January to 3rd February), year of the Ox; ancient Chinese compass point: 30°

丑 (醜) 

chǒu

ugly looking, homely; disgraceful; shameful; ugly

Most common words with 丑
Freq.
Word
Meaning

丑

clown

小丑

clown

丑闻

scandal

丑陋

ugly

丑恶

ugly

Component uses

Meaning component in 1 character (0 verified)

衄

Sound component in 9 characters (3 verified)

紐 纽 羞 扭 鈕 钮 妞 忸 狃

Iconic component in 1 character (1 verified)

羞

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*[n̥]ruʔ

trhjuwX

chǒu

2d earthly branch


Statistics

HSK level 5

Appears in 25.5486% of movies

1272nd most common character in movies

1901st most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

4

Traditional

醜

Unicode

U+4E11

Shuowen

“丑，紐也。十二月，萬物動，用事。象手之形。時加丑，亦舉手時也。”


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