冰船
bīng​chuán

icebreaker

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)

船 chuán ship

Phonosemantic compound. 舟 represents the meaning and 㕣 represents the sound.

Components

舟
舟 Meaning component
zhōu boat
㕣
㕣 Sound component
yǎn a marsh at the foot of the hills
Change in sound

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Warring States ~400 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartzywenCə.lo[n] boat

說文解字

《說文》：“船，舟也。从舟，鉛省聲。”

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)