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guǎ

Meanings

CC-CEDICT

guǎ
  1. 1.few
  2. 2.scant
  3. 3.widowed

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Wiktionary

  1. 1.few; scant
  2. 2.widowed
  3. 3.widow
  4. 4.alone; friendless
  5. 5.tasteless
  6. 6.some
  7. 7.one

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Etymology

In the bronze script from the Western Zhou period, it was originally an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 宀 (“house”) + 頁 (“head”) — only one person in the house; alone. In the bronze script from the Warring States period, two decorative strokes were added around 頁. The seal script found in Shuowen adds two additional strokes, making the component under 宀 appear as 分 and 頁, leading Shuowen to erroneously interpret the character as an ideogrammic compound (會意 /会意): 宀 (“house”) + 頒 (“to distribute”). Related to 鰥 (OC *kruːn, *kruːns, “widower”), 孤 (OC *kʷaː, “orphan; alone”) (Schuessler, 2007). Cognate with Tibetan དགོན་པ (dgon pa, “solitary place; desert; wilderness”), Tibetan སྒོས (sgos, “private; individual”).

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Stroke order

Components

Components from cjk-decomp · MIT

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Synonyms

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Derived terms

Wiktionary · CC BY-SA

Related words