甾

Glyph origin
, attested since of  period. Evolved later into various different shapes – ⿱𠀐田,, and 甾.

The "container" sense was of a different character – – attested since oracle bones script. This sense was conflated with 甾 later, as in Middle Chinese rime books (ibid.) See the entry for more.

This character was practically obsolete before it was revived as a modern translation for steroid. It is also a in this sense; the upper part represents the three side chains on the ring system, and the 田 component represents the tetracyclic core of steroids. See the image on right.

interprets the oracle bone glyph as depicting the new moon and proposes that it originally wrote a word *ts[r]əʔ "darkened phase" i.e. "new moon", related to "blackened",  "field cleared by slash and burn",  "murky (water)". Lunar meaning is also present in of which this character is the upper-right component.

Definitions

 * 1)   steroid
 * 1)   steroid

Hanja

 * 1) pheasant
 * 2) an ancient pottery
 * 3) calamity