child

Phonosemantic compound. represents the meaning and represents the sound.

Components

Meaning component
zi, zǐ child
Sound component
need

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Jin 266-420 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartnyuHno-schild
Zhengzhangnjos

說文解字

乳子也。一曰輸也,輸尚小也。从子需聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica