老头儿
lǎotóur · HSK 3
see 老頭子|老头子[lao3 tou2 zi5]
👴 老 lǎo (old) + 头 tóu (head) + 儿 r (suffix) = old guy
Colloquial Beijing-style term for an old man, with the 儿化 erhua suffix softening 老头 into 老头儿. Same as 老头子, just with the northern r-coloring instead of the 子 noun-suffix.
老 — old man 耂 + 匕 (bent figure)
Originally a pictograph of an elderly person with long hair leaning on a cane. The top 耂 depicts the hair and stooped body, while 匕 at the bottom represents the cane or a bent figure. The core meaning 'old' has remained stable since oracle bone script.
头 — 页 (head/page) + 豆 (bean, phonetic)
The traditional form 頭 combines 頁 (xié), meaning 'head', with 豆 (dòu) as the phonetic component. 頁 itself originally depicted a person with an emphasized head. The simplified form 头 is a modern shorthand that replaces 豆+頁 with a simpler shape while keeping the same meaning of 'head' or 'top'.