After a comprehensive analysis of the meaning of chao (抄) and chaoshou (抄手) as well as depicting the extended series, it can be seen that no later than the tenth century, chao [抄(钞)] which means “picking by fingers” was extended to mean “arched hands salutation” and became the word chaoshou1 (抄手1). At least in the 1260s, the meaning of chao (抄) was infected by cha5 (叉5), and chao (抄) produced chuigong (垂拱, two-handed fork caged in the sleeve) meaning. At least in the first half of the 15th century, the meaning of chaoshou (抄手) was infected by chashou6 (叉手6), and chaoshou (抄手) produced the meaning of “hands crossed over the arms in front of the chest”; Between the 16th and 19th centuries, due to its prominent image characteristics, chaoshou3 (抄手3), which means “hands crossed over the arms in front of the chest”, had metonymic extended into a flour made food chaoshou4 (抄手4). The transmission path of the chaoshou4 (抄手4): Sichuan, Chongqing (do not distinguish which is the cradle) > Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi, Hubei (do not distinguish the order). Under the dominant role of the implicit meaning of the chaoshou2 (抄手2), as the homomorphic word of the root word chaoshou4 (抄手4), maichaoshou4 (賣抄手4) reassembled: the meaning of maichaoshou4 (賣抄手4) evolved from “selling flour made food chaoshou (抄手)” into maichaoshou2 (賣抄手2, having nothing to do), resulting in the local characteristic maichaoshou2 (賣抄手2). As a phenomenon of word meaning development with backtracking characteristics, the emergence of maichaoshou2 (賣抄手2) deserves attention.

• 吳海納(四川大學文學與新聞學院在讀博士研究生, 研究方向, 漢語史, 域外漢字學) | Haina WU