爱 - Dong Chinese dictionary

ài

love

Simplified form of 愛. Phonosemantic compound. 旡 represents the sound and 友 (friend) represents the meaning.

Components

jì

choke on something eaten

爱 and 旡 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in older Chinese.

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

友 Meaning component

yǒu

friend

Evolution

Seal script

Shuowen (~100 AD)

Clerical script

Western Jin dynasty (266-316 AD)

Traditional script

Modern

Simplified script

Modern

Definitions

ài

love, be fond of, like; to love; to be fond of; to like; affection; to be inclined (to do sth); to tend to (happen)

Most common words with 爱

Component uses

Sound component in 5 characters (1 verified)

Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 95.7552% of movies

128th most common character in movies

394th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Sources