Character: 夭
Modern (Beijing) reading: yāo
Preclassic Old Chinese: ʔaw
Classic Old Chinese: ʔaw
Western Han Chinese: ʔaw
Eastern Han Chinese: ʔaw
Early Postclassic Chinese: ʔew
Middle Postclassic Chinese: ʔew
Late Postclassic Chinese: ʔew
Middle Chinese: ʔew
English meaning : be delicate, slender
Russian meaning[s]: 1) пышный, разросшийся; 2) юный; нежный; свежий; [yǎo] 1) хилый; согнутый; 2) умереть в молодости
Shuowen gloss: 屈也.從大.象形.凡夭之屬皆從夭. [494]
Comments: Used also in the binome 夭紹 *ʔaw-d(h)awʔ 'beautiful'. Also read *ʔawʔ, MC ʔéw(FQ 於兆), Pek. yǎo 'to kill prematurely'. Since Late Zhou the meaning 'be beautiful; consider beautiful, love' was usually written by the character 妖. The latter also means 'ghostly, supernatural': whether it is just a semantic development of the original meaning or an independent word is not quite clear.
Since Late Zhou the character is also attested with a reading *ʔāwʔ, MC ʔấw (FQ 烏皓), Pek. ǎo 'young, young age' (possibly related to *ʔawʔ 'kill prematurely' = 'kill in a young age').
Radical: 37
Four-angle index: 5007
Karlgren code: 1141 a-c
Vietnamese reading: yêu
Shijing occurrences: 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 32.1_
