陶 (táo): pottery

Meanings

1 pottery
2 ceramics
3 a surname (Tao)

Characters

陶

táo

pottery; ceramics; surname

Examples

这个陶罐很古老。

Zhège táo guàn hěn gǔlǎo.

This pottery jar is very old.

陶先生是我们的老师。

Táo xiānsheng shì wǒmen de lǎoshī.

Mr. Tao is our teacher.

Tips

culture

陶渊明 (Táo Yuānmíng) was a famous Chinese poet known for his pastoral poetry and love of nature.

usage

陶 as a material appears in compounds like 陶瓷 (ceramics), 陶器 (pottery). As a verb it can mean 'to mold' or 'to cultivate' (陶冶).

Components

radical

阝 fù

mound; hill (left-side radical)

Left mound radical 阝 — the contracted form of 阜 (hill), the indexing radical here when 阝 is on the left (Kangxi #170 fù). Pottery was traditionally made by digging clay from hillsides, so the mound is literal — clay-rich earth. Same left-阝 anchors 院, 防, 阴, 险. (Right-side 阝 is unrelated 邑 'city'.)

phonetic

匋 táo

pottery (phonetic)

Right component supplies the sound (táo, exact match) and is itself the original word for pottery — a person 勹 hunched over a 缶 jar at the wheel. So 陶 is etymologically 'mound + potter' — clay from the hillside being shaped on a wheel. Same phonetic in 萄 (grape), 淘 (rinse), 掏 (scoop out).