Amazing Chinese Characters (688) Smoked (meat) - 腊（臘）

 The bronze script of character Smoked (meat) is

The top is wave, the bottom is Mouth (the square) and Meat (月）. The Mouth could be 日(Day) by mistake. Wave + Day = 昔 （Old Days). A piece of meat (e.g. pork) has been preserved for long time. In China, the most popular traditional preserved meat is smoked pork made from pork in the smoke for months.

The big seal script of character Smoked (meat) is

The left is Radical Meat, the right is character Rodent (Post 687). The character means that the smoked meat made from rodent animal. 

The small seal script of character Smoked (meat) is

Similar to big seal script.

However, there is another small seal script of character Smoked (meat)

The top is character Old Days, the bottom is character Meat. It is obvious from the bronze script.

The clerical script of character Smoked (meat) is

The left is Radical Meat, and right is character 巤（wild animal). It is clear that people abandoned the "Old Days + Meat" form, accepted the "Meat + Rodent Animal" for this character. The reason is unknown.

The song typeface of the character is

The right part changed back to character Old Days, which is OK because meat in old days could be preserved by smoking for long time.

The Pinyin of the character La4.