丏
miǎn

parapet

Original meaning: to not be seen

Depicts a person (人) with a cover on top, conveying the original meaning "to not be seen". The meaning later shifted to "invisible" and "parapet".

Components

一
一 Iconic component
yī one

Used here to depict a cover.

人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person
Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 3 verified)

沔眄麪

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangmeːnʔ

說文解字

《說文》：“丏，不見也。象壅蔽之形。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.701
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)