晚 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

wǎn HSK1

night

Phonosemantic compound. 日 represents the meaning and 免 represents the sound.

Components

日 Meaning component

rì sun

免 Sound component

miǎn (hat), avoid

Change in sound

晚 and 免 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
晚 *m[o][r]ʔ
免 *mr[o][r]ʔ

Regular Modern

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	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	mjonX	m[o][r]ʔ	late

《說文》：“晚，莫也。从日，免聲。”