刑
xíng HSK7

punishment

Phonosemantic compound. 刂 represents the meaning and 井 represents the sound.

Components

井
井 Sound component
jǐng well

Modern form looks like 开.

Change in form
Due to historical stylistic changes, this component is less similar to 井 than it was in ancient scripts.
刂
刂 Meaning component
dāo knife

刂 is a component form of 刀.

Character Evolution

Bronze form
Bronze Spring and Autumn 771-476 BC
Seal form
Seal Warring States (Chu) 475-221 BC
Seal form
Seal Shuowen ~100 AD
Regular Modern

Component uses

Sound (1 of 2 verified)

型硎

Historical Pronunciations

Middle ChineseOld ChineseGloss
Baxter-Sagartheng[ɢ]ˤeŋ punish(ment)
heng[ɢ]ˤeŋ model, form

說文解字

《說文》：“，剄也。仌刀，幵聲。”

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)