俭素
jiǎn​sù

frugal

俭 jiǎn temperate Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 佥 represents the sound. Simplified form of 儉.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

佥
佥 Sound component
qiān together

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

素 sù raw silk, white, plain

Depicts raw silk (糸) hanging from a rack.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a rack.

糸
糸 Iconic component
mì, sī silk

Depicts raw silk.


Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Three Kingdoms (Cao Wei) 222-280 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (0 of 2 verified)

愫嗉

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

愫

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartsuH[s]ˤak-s white silk

說文解字

《說文》：“素，白緻繒也。从糸、，取其澤也。”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.891-892
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

儉 jiǎn temperate Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 亻 represents the meaning and 僉 represents the sound.

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

僉
僉 Sound component
together

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartgjemX[ɡ]r[a]mʔrestrict, frugal
Zhengzhangɡramʔ
Unicodeghyɛ̌m

說文解字

約也。从人僉聲。

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)