■ radical

cuò

error

How it’s built

Phonosemantic compound. 金 represents the meaning and 昔 represents the sound. The character is based on the original meaning "grind stone", which later shifted to "mix", "be in disorder", and "wrong".

金

meaning

metal; gold

昔

sound

former times; ancient — The pronunciation of 錯 was similar to 昔 in old Chinese, but they no longer sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes.

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