<p>Nope. The radical was simplified from 玉 (jade), originally referring to a polished sphere of jade. 求 is the phonetic component.</p>

<p>For reference, Baxter's Old Chinese reconstruction has 求 *grju, and 球 *grju. In this particular case, 求 has remained a good phonetic for three millennia!</p>

<p>The sense of 'sounding stone made of jade' can be seen in the Kangxi dictionary: <a href="http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0732.gif">http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0732.gif</a></p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-20T06:13:39.183Z
Brilliant answer.
Stumpy Joe Pete
CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-18T02:36:01.577Z
2013-05-18T05:32:51.517Z
2013-05-18T05:32:51.517Z
jogloran
<p>The character 球 means <em>ball</em> and is composed of </p>

<ol>
<li>王 meaning <em>king</em> and </li>
<li>求 meaning <em>demand</em>.</li>
</ol>

<p>Where does this composition come from? Did a king ask for a ball?</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2013-05-21T19:30:33.810Z
@jogloran gave a great answer, but I also wanted to point out that in general, most characters should not be analyzed via the meaning of their components. In fact over 90% of characters are [phono-semantic compounds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Phono-semantic_compound_characters), in which one component hints at the meaning while the other hints at the pronunciation, as is the case here.
Claw
<glyph-origin>
Did a king ask for a ball? How did 王 + 求 become 球?
# Did a king ask for a ball? How did 王 + 求 become 球?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2013-05-17)

The character 球 means *ball* and is composed of

1. 王 meaning *king* and
2. 求 meaning *demand*.

Where does this composition come from? Did a king ask for a ball?

**Tags:** glyph-origin

> **Comments:**
> **username_1**: @username_2 gave a great answer, but I also wanted to point out that in general, most characters should not be analyzed via the meaning of their components. In fact over 90% of characters are [phono-semantic compounds](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_character_classification#Phono-semantic_compound_characters), in which one component hints at the meaning while the other hints at the pronunciation, as is the case here.  

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## 1 answers

### Answer by username_2 on 2013-05-18. Score: 14 | Accepted answer

Nope. The radical was simplified from 玉 (jade), originally referring to a polished sphere of jade. 求 is the phonetic component.

For reference, Baxter's Old Chinese reconstruction has 求 \*grju, and 球 \*grju. In this particular case, 求 has remained a good phonetic for three millennia!

The sense of 'sounding stone made of jade' can be seen in the Kangxi dictionary: <http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0732.gif>

> **Comments:**
> **username_3**: Brilliant answer.  

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