儒艮
rú​gèn

dugong

儒 rú Confucian scholar

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

Components

亻
亻 Meaning component
rén person

亻 is a component form of 人.

需
需 Sound component
xū need

Character Evolution

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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartnyuno侏儒 zhūrú "dwarf", scholar, Confucianism<br><small>(not in original list)</small>
Zhengzhangnjo
Unicodenjio
njio

說文解字

柔也。術士之偁。从人需聲。

Sources

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

艮 gěn, gèn, hén blunt

Original meaning: look backwards

Depicts a person looking backwards. Based on the original meaning "look backwards". The modern meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

目
目 Iconic component
mù eye

Depicts an eye.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 目 than it was in ancient scripts.
人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person

Horizontally flipped version of 人, depicts a person looking backwards.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 人 than it was in ancient scripts.

Character Evolution

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

Component uses

Sound (11 of 21 verified)

很眼根跟限银恨艰狠痕恳垦龈垠裉哏茛銀齦艱貇

Meaning (1 of 2 verified)

很貇

Historical Pronunciations

Old Chinese
Zhengzhangkɯːns

說文解字

《說文》：“艮，很也。从匕目。匕目，猶目相匕，不相下也。《易》曰：‘艮其限。匕目為艮，匕目為真也。’”

Sources

Character origin
季旭昇《說文新證》p.648
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)