冰凉
bīng​liáng

ice-cold

冰 bīng ice

Depicts chunks (冫) of frozen water (水).

Components

冫
冫 Iconic component
bīng ice

冫 is a component form of 冰. Depicts chunks of ice.

水
水 Meaning component
shuǐ water

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 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-Sagartpingp.rəŋ (dialect: *p.r- > *pr-)ice

說文解字

《說文》：“冰，水堅也。从仌，从水。凝，俗冰从疑。”

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)

凉 liáng cool Simplified

Original meaning: light alcohol, dilute wine

Phonosemantic compound. 冫 is a simplification of 氵 (water), based on the original meaning "light alcohol, dilute wine". 京 represents the sound. Simplified form of 涼.

Components

冫
冫 MeaningSimplified component
bīng ice

氵 was simplified to 冫.

京
京 Sound component
jīng capital city
Change in sound

Historical Pronunciations

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫康熙字典
Readings & variants
Unicode

涼 liáng cool Traditional

Original meaning: light alcohol, dilute wine

Phonosemantic compound. 氵 represents the meaning and 京 represents the sound.

Components

氵
氵 Meaning component
shui, shuǐ water

氵 is a component form of 水.

京
京 Sound component
jīng capital city
Change in sound

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
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartljangC.raŋ cold

說文解字

《說文》：“涼，薄也。从水，京聲。”

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)