分拣
fēn​jiǎn

sort

分 fēn, fèn, fen divide

Depicts a knife (刀) being used to cut two things apart (八).

Components

八
八 SoundIconic component
bā eight

Depicts two things being separated.

Change in sound
刀
刀 Iconic component
dāo knife

Character Evolution

Oracle form
Oracle Bone ~1250-1000 BC
Bronze form
Bronze Early Western Zhou ~1000 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 Western Han 202 BC-9 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 (6 of 23 verified)

份纷贫粉芬扮氛盆盼吩颁忿汾酚玢棼邠坌貧鼢紛頒棻

Meaning (0 of 6 verified)

贫颁岔掰貧頒

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartpjunpə[n] divide
bjunH[m]-pə[n]-s alloted duty

說文解字

《說文》：“分，別也。从八，从刀，刀以分別物也。”

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)

拣 jiǎn choose Simplified

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 柬 represents the sound. Simplified form of 揀.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

柬
柬 SoundSimplified component
jiǎn letter

Derived from the cursive form of the traditional 柬 component.

Sources

Readings & variants
Unicode

揀 jiǎn choose Traditional

Phonosemantic compound. 扌 represents the meaning and 柬 represents the sound.

Components

扌
扌 Meaning component
shou, shǒu hand

扌 is a component form of 手.

柬
柬 Sound component
jiǎn letter

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-SagartkeanXkˤr[a]nʔ select

Sources

Character origin
漢語多功能字庫
Readings & variants
Unicode
Historical pronunciations
Baxter-Sagart