老

See also 耂

Translingual

Stroke order

Stroke order

Etymology

Ideogrammic compound (會意): 耂 (“an old man with long hair, bent over”) + 匕 (“cane”) – an old man, leaning on a cane. Compare top component to 孝

Cognate to 考; the most commonly cited example of 轉注 (zhuǎn zhù, “reciprocal meaning”).

Oracle bone script	Bronze inscriptions	Large seal script	Small seal script

Han character

老 (radical 125 老+0, 6 strokes, cangjie input 十大心 (JKP), four-corner 4471₁, composition ⿱耂匕)

1. old, aged
2. experienced

References

• KangXi: page 960, character 25
• Dai Kanwa Jiten: character 28842
• Dae Jaweon: page 1407, character 8
• Hanyu Da Zidian: volume 4, page 2778, character 1
• Unihan data for U+8001

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Cantonese

Hanzi

老 (Yale lou5)

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Japanese

Kanji

老 (grade 4 “Kyōiku” kanji)

1. old age, an old person, the aged

Readings

• On: ろう (rō)
• Kun: おいる (oiru), ふける (fukeru), おい (oi)

Compounds

• 老衰

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Korean

Hanja

老 (hangeul 로>노, revised ro>no, McCune-Reischauer ro>no, Yale lo>no)

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Mandarin

simpl. and trad.

老

Pronunciation

• audio

  (file)

Hanzi

老 (pinyin lǎo (lao3), Wade-Giles lao³)

Adjective

老 (traditional and simplified, Pinyin lǎo)

1. old, aged (for persons, animate and inanimate objects generally)
2. a term of affection preceding a surname

   老张马上来了，我得赶紧收拾一下屋子。

   'Old Zhang is going to be here any minute, I need to hurry up and straighten the room up a bit.

3. a prefix denoting respect or closeness, used in several fixed terms

   老师, 老婆, 老公

   teacher, wife ("sweetheart, etc."), husband ("hubby, etc.")

4. a prefix used in conjunction with the name of several animals considered noxious or unpleasant

   老虎, 老鼠

   tiger, mouse

5. overcooked, tough, stringy (used in reference to cooked food or meat)
6. stale, not fresh (used in reference to food or potable liquids)

Compounds

• 老子
• 老外
• 老黑
• 老师
• 老虎
• 老鼠
• 老掉牙
• 老婆
• 老公
• 老套
• 老乡

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Middle Chinese

Han character

老 (*lǎu)

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Vietnamese

Han character

老 (lão, láu, lảo, lảu, rảu, lẩu, lẽo, lếu)