僧院
sēng​yuàn

monastery

僧 sēng, céng Buddhist priest

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

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

曾
曾 Sound component
céng already

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld Chinese
Zhengzhangsɯːŋ
Unicodesəng
səng

說文解字

浮屠道人也。从人曾聲。

Sources

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

院 yuàn courtyard

Phonosemantic compound. 阝 represents the meaning and 完 represents the sound.

Components

阝
阝 Meaning component
fù hill, place

阝 is a component form of 阜.

完
完 Sound component
wán complete

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Qin 221-206 BC
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagarthjwenHɢʷra[n]-s wall round a courtyard

說文解字

堅也。从𨸏完聲。

Sources

Character origin
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)