凶讯 Origin — Dong Chinese Dictionary

xiōng vicious, fierce Simplified

Pictograph of a trap in the ground.

Character Evolution

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

Regular Modern

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Component uses

Historical Pronunciations

	Middle Chinese	Old Chinese	Gloss
Baxter-Sagart	xjowng	qʰ(r)oŋ	unlucky

說文解字

《說文》：“凶，惡也。象地穿交陷其中也。”

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)

xùn inquire Simplified

Simplified form of 訊. Depicts a mouth (口) interrogating a captured prisoner of war (卂). 卂 also represents the sound. The 口 (mouth) component was later reanalyzed as 讠 (speech).

Components

讠 Iconic component

yán speech

讠 is a component form of 言. Originally 口 (mouth). Later reanalyzed as 讠 (speech).

卂 Sound Iconic component

xùn to fly rapidly

Depicts a captive prisoner with their hands tied behind their back.

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫中華語文知識庫
Readings & variants: Unicode

xiōng terrible, fearful Traditional

Depicts a person (卩) under a trap (凶).

Components

凶 Sound Iconic component

xiōng vicious, fierce

Depicts a trap.

卩 Meaning component

jié person kneeling

Depicts a person under a trap.

Change in form

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

Character Evolution

Regular Modern

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Historical Pronunciations

	Old Chinese
Zhengzhang	qʰoŋ
	qʰoŋʔ

說文解字

《說文》：“兇，擾恐也，从人在凶下。”

Sources

Character origin: 漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants: Unicode
Historical pronunciations: Zhengzhang Shangfang
Historical images: Academia Sinica
Etymology: Shuowen Jiezi (說文解字)

xùn inquire Traditional

Depicts a mouth (口) interrogating a captured prisoner of war (卂). 卂 also represents the sound. The 口 (mouth) component was later reanalyzed as 言 (speech).