冥福
míng​fú

afterlife happiness

冥 míng, mián, miàn dark

Original meaning: to give birth to a child

Depicts two hands (𠬜) opening a woman's legs with a baby's head protruding out of it. Based on the original meaning "to give birth to a child", now written as 娩. The current meaning is a phonetic loan.

Components

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts the legs of a woman.

◎
◎ Iconic component
characterless component

Depicts a baby's head.

𠬜
𠬜 Iconic component
pān to climb

Depicts two hands facing away from each other. Modern form looks like 六.

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

Character Evolution

Seal form
Seal Xin 9-23 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

Component uses

Sound (0 of 5 verified)

瞑溟螟暝蓂

Meaning (0 of 1 verified)

瞑

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartmengmˤeŋ dark

說文解字

《說文》：“冥，幽也。从日，从六，冖聲。日數十，十六日而月始虧，幽也。”

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫Этимология китайских иероглифов
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart
Historical images
Academia Sinica
Etymology
Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

福 fú happiness

Phonosemantic compound. 礻 represents the meaning and 畐 represents the sound.

Components

礻
礻 Meaning component
shì show

礻 is a component form of 示.

畐
畐 Sound component
fú, bì to fill

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Mid Western Zhou ~900 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Spring and Autumn ~700 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
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

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpjuwkpək blessing

說文解字

《說文》：“福，祐也。从示，畐聲。”

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)