orphan

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components
子 meaning component

  Meaning component

zi

  

child

瓜 sound component

  Sound component

guā

  

melon

Evolution

孤 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)
孤 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)
孤 Clerical script Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)
孤 Regular script Modern

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

 

orphan, fatherless; solitary; lone; lonely

Most common words with 孤
Freq.
Word
Meaning

孤独

lonely

lone

孤单

lone

孤儿

orphan

孤儿院

orphanage

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*kʷˤa

ku

orphan


Statistics

HSK level 6

Appears in 30.8986% of movies

1171st most common character in movies

1334th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

8

Unicode

U+5B64

Shuowen

“孤,無父也。从子,瓜聲。”


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