Derived from 夗. Pictograph of a dying animal lying down. The meaning later shifted to "small round object", "pellet" and "pill".
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | hwan | [ɢ]ʷˤar | pellet; ball |
| hwan | ɦʷˤar (< *[ɢ]ʷˤar) | 烏丸 Wūhuán: Avars (W. Hàn) |
說文解字
《說文》：“丸，圜，傾側而轉者。从反仄。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 季旭昇《說文新證》p.726劉釗《古文字構形學》p.128
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)
Pictograph of a small child with its two arms waving.
Character Evolution
Component uses
Historical Pronunciations
| Middle Chinese | Old Chinese | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baxter-Sagart | tsiX | [ts]əʔ | 1st earthly branch |
| tsiX | tsəʔ | child; gentleman, master |
說文解字
《說文》：“子，十一月陽气動，萬物滋，人以為偁。象形。，古文子，从巛，象髮也。，籀文子，囟有髮，臂、脛在几上也。”
Sources
- Character origin
- 徐中舒《甲骨文字典》p.1571漢語多功能字庫
- Readings & variants
- Unicode
- Historical pronunciations
- Baxter-Sagart
- Historical images
- Academia Sinica
- Etymology
- Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)