凌虐
líng​nüè

maltreat

凌 líng, lìng pure

Components

冫
冫 Meaning component
bīng ice

ice

夌
夌 Sound component
líng to surpass, to ascend

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 BC
Seal form
Seal Western Han 202 BC-9 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartling[r]əŋtransgress; attack
lingp.rəŋice
Zhengzhangrɯŋ
Unicodeliəng

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-SagartZhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images
Academia Sinica

虐 nüè cruel

Depicts a tiger (虍) attacking a person (人).

Components

虍
虍 Iconic component
hū tiger

Depicts a tiger.

人
人 Iconic component
rén, ren person

Depicts a person.

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

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Late Western Zhou ~800 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 Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Clerical form
Clerical Eastern Han 25-220 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (2 of 4 verified)

谑疟瘧謔

Meaning (0 of 2 verified)

谑謔

Simplified (1)

疟

Remnant (1)

疟

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartngjak[ŋ](r)awk cruel

說文解字

《說文》：“虐，殘也。从虍，虎足反爪人也。，古文虐如此。”

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)