Definitions

Wa, Kawa or Va ethnic group of Myanmar, south China and southeast Asia

Etymology phono-semantic

people

Semantic: Phonetic:

About

is a phono-semantic compound with the human radical on the left (indicating people or ethnic groups) and the phonetic component on the right. It is used exclusively as the name of the Wa people, an ethnic group inhabiting the mountainous regions of southwestern China and Southeast Asia. This pattern of combining the human radical with a phonetic is a standard way to transcribe ethnic and indigenous names in Chinese, so has no other lexical or abstract meanings.

Etymology Hide

Bronze etymology image
Bronze Mid Western Zhou (~900 BC)
Traditional Modern
Simplified Modern