Chinese Character Wiki
包

bāo

wrap

Original meaning: 

womb

Phonosemantic compound. 巳 here depicts an unborn baby and 勹 represents the sound. Based on the original meaning "womb", now written as 胞. The meaning later shifted to "to cover" and "to wrap".

Components
勹 sound component

勹  Sound component

bāo

  

wrap

巳 iconic component

巳  Iconic component

sì

  

the hours from 9 to 11

Used here to depict an unborn baby.

Evolution

包 Seal script Shuowen (~100 AD)

Seal script

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

Clerical script

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

Regular script

Modern
Definitions

包  

bāo

wrap, pack, bundle; package; to cover; to wrap; to hold; to include; to take charge of; to contract (to or for); wrapper; container; bag; to hold or embrace; bundle; packet; CL:個|个[gè],隻|只[zhī]

包  

Bāo

surname Bao

Most common words with 包
Freq.
Word
Meaning

包括

to comprise

包

to cover

面包

bread

钱包

purse

包装

to pack

Component uses

Meaning component in 3 characters (0 verified)

袍 苞 飑

Sound component in 24 characters (6 verified)

跑 炮 砲 抱 飽 饱 胞 泡 鮑 鲍 袍 咆 刨 苞 雹 疱 皰 庖 孢 齙 龅 匏 狍 飑

Historical pronunciation

Old Chinese

Middle Chinese

Pinyin

Gloss

*pˤ<r>u

paew

bāo

wrap, bundle


Statistics

HSK level 1

Appears in 73.4102% of movies

493rd most common character in movies

454th most common character in books

Miscellaneous

Strokes

5

Unicode

U+5305

Shuowen

“包，象人褢妊，巳在中，象子未成形也。”


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