Chinese Character Wiki
弔

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
◎ iconic component

◎  Iconic component

  

characterless component

Depicts silk streamers used for wrapping around arrows with.

人 iconic component

人  Iconic component

rén

  

person

Evolution

弔 Oracle script (~1250-1000 BC)

Oracle script

(~1250-1000 BC)
弔 Bronze script Late Shang dynasty (~1100 BC)

Bronze script

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

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

弔  

diào

condole, mourn, pity; hang

吊 (弔) 

diào

a string of 100 cash (arch.); to lament; to condole with; variant of 吊[diào]

Most common words with 弔
Freq.
Word
Meaning

吊

to lament

吊销

to revoke

上吊

to hang oneself

吊死

death by hanging

吊带

suspenders

Component uses

Sound component in 1 character (0 verified)

伄

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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