共存 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

gòngcún

coexist

gòng together with

Pictograph of two hands holding up a vessel.

Components

◎ Iconic component

characterless component

Depicts a vessel being held up.

廾 Iconic component

gǒng two hands

Character Evolution

Bronze form — Bronze Late Shang ~1100 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC

Bronze form — Bronze Late Warring States ~250 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (4 of 15 verified)

供洪恭巷哄拱龚烘衖珙蕻龔輂栱鬨

Iconic (1)

Meaning (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	gjowngH	N-k(r)oŋʔ-s	together, all

說文解字

《說文》：“共，同也。从廿、廾。，古文共。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫裘錫圭 "Chinese Writing" p.189
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Baxter-Sagart
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

cún exist, keep

Phonosemantic compound. 子 represents the meaning and 才 represents the sound.

Components

子 Meaning component

zi, zǐ child

才 Sound component

cái, cai talent

Change in sound

存 and 才 don't sound similar in modern Mandarin due to historical phonetic changes. They were more similar in Old Chinese.
存 *[dz]ˤə[n]
才 *[dz]ˤə

Character Evolution

Seal form — Seal Shuowen ~100 AD

Clerical form — Clerical Qin 221-206 BC

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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Sound (1)

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	dzwon	[dz]ˤə[n]	exist

說文解字

《說文》：“存，恤問也。从子，才聲。”

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)